Order of keyserver results

[David Shaw]

On Fri, Mar 24, 2006 at 03:43:18PM -0600, Robert J. Hansen wrote:
> While trying to write code to fetch keys from a keyserver automagically,
> I ran across this case while doing testing.  Options were the standard
> stuff for machine-readable output--fixed-list-mode and --with-colons.
> 
> 			* * * * *
> 
> gpg: searching for "0xDEADBEEF" from hkp server
> 	random.sks.keyserver.penguin.de
> info:1:5
> pub:DEADBEEF:1:2048:933688385::
> uid:Imad R. Faiad:933688385::
> pub:DEADBEEF:17:1024:925285688::
> uid:Imad R. Faiad:934573220::
> uid:Preston Wilson <pres at domain-removed.com>:::
> pub:DEADBEEF:1:384:1080720427::
> pub:DEADBEEF:1:1024:812327879::
> pub:DEADBEEF:17:1024:980061169::
> uid:Imad R. Faiad:::
> uid:Preston Wilson <pres at domain-removed.com>:993420630::
> 
> 			* * * * *
> 
> My question here is... why are the UIDs and pub identifiers not
> interleaved?  In all the other tests I ran, they came out neatly
> interleaved, which made it easy to figure out which pub row was
> associated with each uid row.

Believe it or not, those are interleaved.  The problem is that in the
keyserver database, some keys have no uids.  Every time you see "pub"
that indicates the start of a new key.  There may or may not be any
uids attached.  Try searching for 0xDEADBEEF from the regular web
interface and you'll see the same thing.

David