Req for info: binary key format

[Werner Koch]

On 10 Jan 2002 00:03:44 -0600, Robert J Hansen said:

> Howdy, y'all.  In the process of trying to scratch an itch I
> have--namely, no good GNOME visualizations for keyrings--I've run into a
> bit of a wall: I can't find a definition for GPG's keyring format.  

Currently this is plain rfc2440 transport format, but also see
doc/DETAILS for the parts which are left undefined there.

However, it doe not matter for you how gpg stores its keys.  This is a
implementation detail of gpg and the only way to access the keys is by
utilizing the published interface which is gpg --list-keys
--with-colons etc., --export, --import.  This is called data
encapsulation and has been proven to be one of the best things OOP
yields.

Be warned, you are getting yourself into trouble by accessing the
keyring directly.  The way the keys are stored may change with any
version.  If you don't want to use gpg, you should make a snapshot of
the data by using gpg --export.

hth,

  Werner


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Werner Koch        Omnis enim res, quae dando non deficit, dum habetur
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