problem with unix user id and default key

Martin Blais blais@iro.umontreal.ca
Mon Mar 18 04:12:02 2002


hi all

i have a funny problem: when my unix username matches one of the keys
in the public keyring, which is not the key for which i have a private
key, i seem to have problems with the trust path. it's as if gpg
always thinks that that key is the owner's key and barks everytime i
need to encrypt, e.g.

my username is "blais".
when i create a db with a secret key for user your_name, e.g.

,----
| tadora:~$ gpg --list-keys
| /home/blais/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
| ------------------------------
| pub  1024D/5C3DC372 2002-03-17 Your Name <your_name@my.other.email.address.org>
| uid                            Your Name <your_name@your.email.address.com>
| sub  1024g/8D5850AB 2002-03-17
| 
| tadora:~$ 
`----

then i import and sign the public key for user blais:

,----
| tadora:~$ gpg --import blais-public-key.asc 
| gpg: key D1775F1D: public key imported
| gpg: Total number processed: 1
| gpg:               imported: 1
| tadora:~$ gpg --sign-key blais
| 
| pub  1024D/D1775F1D  created: 2001-12-02 expires: never      trust: m/q
| sub  1024g/4E26EFDC  created: 2001-12-02 expires: never     
| (1)  Martin Blais <blais@iro.umontreal.ca>
| (2). Martin Blais <blais@discreet.com>
| 
| Really sign all user IDs? y
|                            
| pub  1024D/D1775F1D  created: 2001-12-02 expires: never      trust: m/q
|              Fingerprint: D33B E835 9B43 6D52 FE10  F47D AB63 E60B D177 5F1D
| 
|      Martin Blais <blais@iro.umontreal.ca>
|      Martin Blais <blais@discreet.com>
| 
| Are you really sure that you want to sign this key
| with your key: "Your Name <your_name@my.other.email.address.org>"
| 
| Really sign? y
|               
| You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
| user: "Your Name <your_name@my.other.email.address.org>"
| 1024-bit DSA key, ID 5C3DC372, created 2002-03-17
| 
| tadora:~$ gpg --list-sigs
| /home/blais/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
| ------------------------------
| pub  1024D/5C3DC372 2002-03-17 Your Name <your_name@my.other.email.address.org>
| sig        5C3DC372 2002-03-18  Your Name <your_name@my.other.email.address.org>
| uid                            Your Name <your_name@your.email.address.com>
| sig        5C3DC372 2002-03-17  Your Name <your_name@my.other.email.address.org>
| sub  1024g/8D5850AB 2002-03-17
| sig        5C3DC372 2002-03-17  Your Name <your_name@my.other.email.address.org>
| 
| pub  1024D/D1775F1D 2001-12-02 Martin Blais <blais@discreet.com>
| sig        D1775F1D 2001-12-16  Martin Blais <blais@discreet.com>
| sig        20D44B70 2001-12-06  [User id not found]
| sig        01F8CF57 2002-03-08  [User id not found]
| sig        5C3DC372 2002-03-18  Your Name <your_name@my.other.email.address.org>
| uid                            Martin Blais <blais@iro.umontreal.ca>
| sig        D1775F1D 2001-12-16  Martin Blais <blais@discreet.com>
| sig        20D44B70 2001-12-06  [User id not found]
| sig        01F8CF57 2002-03-08  [User id not found]
| sig        5C3DC372 2002-03-18  Your Name <your_name@my.other.email.address.org>
| sub  1024g/4E26EFDC 2001-12-02
| sig        D1775F1D 2001-12-16  Martin Blais <blais@discreet.com>
| 
| tadora:~$ 
`----


when i try to encrypt, i get this warning:

,----
| tadora:~$ gpg -aer blais secret
| Could not find a valid trust path to the key.  Let's see whether we
| can assign some missing owner trust values.
| 
| No path leading to one of our keys found.
| 
| 1024g/4E26EFDC 2001-12-02 "Martin Blais <blais@discreet.com>"
|              Fingerprint: 5407 1AE2 2EEE 02F5 5C82  5256 20A5 00CF 4E26 EFDC
| 
| It is NOT certain that the key belongs to its owner.
| If you *really* know what you are doing, you may answer
| the next question with yes
| 
| Use this key anyway? 
`----


i tried fiddling with more signing, and setting the trust, to no
avail. then i discovered that if i did the same under user "root", i
did not have the warning.

so i tried setting the --local-user, the --default-key and fiddling
with all the other options and the options file, and i cannot seem to
get rid of that warning.

any idea?
please Cc, i'm not on this list.
thx,