[Q] "sign" vs "sign-locally"

[Joseph Bruni]

When you sign a key, you vouch for its authenticity. Your signature, being ultimately trusted, bestows validity to the key. Your signature is exported whenever you export this public key and pass it on to someone else. When you locally sign the key, your signature is not exported, but the key is still considered valid as far as you are concerned.



 
On Wednesday, May 28, 2003, at 05:00PM, Daniel Carrera <dcarrera@math.umd.edu> wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I just realized that there are two ways of signing a key.  You can "sign" 
>it, or sign it it "locally".  What's the difference?
>
>If I understand correctly, your signing a key means that you are 
>confident that the key belongs to the person you think it does.  So, for 
>instance, I could meet the person face-to-face and get his or her key ID 
>for verification.
>
>I've looked at the man page.  I think that "sign" is what I just described 
>in the above paragraph.  But I'm not sure I understand how "sign-locally" 
>is different.
>
>Also, why would I ever want to sign a key "non-revocably"?
>
>Thanks for the help.
>-- 
>Daniel Carrera         | OpenPGP fingerprint:
>Graduate TA, Math Dept | 6643 8C8B 3522 66CB D16C D779 2FDD 7DAC 9AF7 7A88
>UMD  (301) 405-5137    | http://www.math.umd.edu/~dcarrera/pgp.html
>
>
 

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