Update of key impossible due to duplicate ID

[David Shaw]

On Thu, Jul 28, 2005 at 06:34:20PM +0200, Christian Biere wrote:

> I've tried to ask the guys who run pgpkeys.mit.edu about this issue
> but got no reply. The same problem occurs with other servers that
> run the same keyserver software. Is this an issue with GnuPG itself
> or a bug in the keyserver software? Anyone who uses these servers
> to get update for my public key from these servers, won't get one.
> 
> Here's my problem:
> 
> I've tried to update my public key at pgpkeys.mit.edu several times
> but it always returns a broken(?) key with a "duplicate ID". The
> keyserver at blackhole.pca.dfn.de doesn't have this problem.

It's a keyserver issue.  blackhole.pca.dfn.de is running SKS, which is
more or less bug free.  pgp.mit.edu is running PKS which has some
problems.  One of those problems is that it can duplicate user IDs
sometimes.  This is annoying but harmless, and GnuPG will unduplicate
them automatically.  More serious is that it cannot handle subkeys
properly.

David