Linux in a Nutshell, Fifth Edition

gpg | 183

Linux

Commands

This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

Copyright © 2006 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

-R Disable access to the group. Also prevent creation of a new

group with the same name.

-r Remove the password entirely.

gpg

gpg [options] command [options]

The GNU Privacy Guard application allows you to encrypt and

decrypt information, create public and private encryption keys, and

use or verify digital signatures. GPG is based on the use of a pair of

keys, one public and one private (or “secret”). Data encrypted with

one key can only be decrypted with the other. To encrypt a

message to you, someone would use your public key to create a

message that could only be unlocked with your private key. To sign

information, you would lock it with your private key, allowing

anyone to verify that it came from you by unlocking it with your

public key.

GPG has dozens of additional options that fine-tune its available

options. For a complete list, plus a guide to careful use of encryp-

tion and a deeper explanation of how public-key encryption works,

visit www.gnupg.org.

Key Commands

--check-sigs[keyname]

Lists keys and signatures like --list-sigs, but also verifies them.

--delete-key keyname

Delete the specified key from the keyring.

--delete-secret-key keyname

Delete the named secret key from the keyring.

--delete-secret-and-public-key keyname

Delete the secret (if any) and then