What are some useful GPG commands?

Username:
Password:

To encrypt a plaintext file with the recipient's public key: gpg -e -r recipient_userid textfile
To sign a plaintext file with your secret key: gpg -s textfile
To sign a plaintext file with your secret key and have the output readable to people without running GPG first: gpg --clearsign textfile
To sign a plaintext file with your secret key, and then encrypt it with the recipient's public key: gpg -se -r recipient_userid
To decrypt an encrypted file, or to check the signature integrity of a signed file: gpg [-o outputfile] ciphertextfile

To generate your own unique public/secret key pair: gpg --gen-key
To add a public or secret key file's contents to your public or secret key ring: gpg --import keyfile
To extract (copy) a key from your public or secret key ring: gpg -ao keyfile --export userid
or
gpg -ao keyfile --export-secret-key
To view the contents of your public key ring: gpg --list-keys
To view the "fingerprint" of a public key, to help verify it over the telephone with its owner: gpg --fingerprint userid
To view the contents and check the certifying signatures of your public key ring: gpg --check-sigs
To edit a key: gpg --edit-key userid
To remove a key or just a userid from your public key ring: gpg --delete-key userid
To permanently revoke your own key, issuing a key compromise certificate: gpg --gen-revoke userid
To disable or re-enable a public key on your own public key ring: gpg --batch --edit-key userid disable
or
gpg --batch -edit-key userid enable

To create a signature certificate that is detached from the document: gpg -sb textfile
To detach a signature certificate from a signed message gpg -b ciphertextfile

To produce a ciphertext file in ASCII format, just add the -a option when encrypting or signing a message or extracting a key: gpg -sea textfile
To specify a recipient, add the -r option followed by a user id: gpg -se -r recipient textfile
To specify an output file, add the -o option followed by a filename: gpg -d -o outputfile textfile

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Last modified on March 14, 2008.