why are there 2 keys?

[Ingo Klöcker]

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Hi Neko!

> sorry for asking a FAQ, I didn't find the question in the official
> FAQ on the web.

There's no need to apologize for anything

> I generated a pair of keys for me. If I now want to send my public
> key I get two keys offered, one marked as 's' and one marked with
> 'e'.

Have you tried if there is a difference if you choose one key or the 
other?

A fresh GnuPG key consists of two keys. The primary key is mainly for 
signing and the secondary (sub) key is for encryption. If you now want 
to send you public key to someone you export this key (preferrably in 
an ascii armor). For this use 'gpg --export --armor' followed by your 
user id or the key id (prepended by 0x if the key id starts with A-F). 
I just tried exporting my key with the key id of the primary key and 
the key id of the secondary key. As I had expected both times exactly 
the same was exported, that is the whole key with all sub keys and all 
signatures (except those which are marked as local of course).

So I think it doesn't matter if you choose the key marked as 's' or the 
key marked as 'e'. But to be sure you should try it out.

Regards,
Ingo

P.S.: Auf der Pinguin-Liste ist ja ueberhaupt nix mehr los in letzter 
Zeit.
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