Getting started with GnuPG

[Sam Roberts]

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Quoting Felix Karpfen <felkarp@pcug.org.au>, who wrote:
> I have recently (successfully?) installed gnupg-1.0.1.  However, I have
> ground to a halt when exploring the supplying of the required defaults
> to be able to use the program.

Did you attempt to follow the step-by-step in the manual? It walks you
through this, at what point are you stuck?

> The problem can almost certainly be resolved in two sentences.
>=20
> In the GPG Manual, the creation of a key pair with the command `gpg
> --gen-key' reportedly requests the information `Real name' which the
> software then combines with the email address to construct the user id.=
=20

"reportedly"? Are you implying that you actually attempted to generate
a key pair, but that you weren't prompted for Real Name? What exactly is
the problem you encountered?

> On the other hand, the documentation that came with the program (and
> refers specifically to Version 1.0) includes `8 Ways to Specify a User
> ID' (two of which include an email address).

You aren't specifying a key, you're creating one. Once you've created
it you can use one of those 8 ways to refer to it.

> My questions are:
>=20
> a) what is the significance of the email address in the user id; and

It allows a key to be associated with an email address, which is assumed
to be associated with a person. Conversely, it allows an email address
to be associated with a key.

> b) how is the user id edited, if the email address `constructed by the
> software" is unsatisfactory.

Some software attempted to construct a user id for you? Don't you get
prompted for an email address when you generate a key pair?

Sam

--=20
Sam Roberts (sam@cogent.ca), Cogent Real-Time Systems (www.cogent.ca)

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