Best/correct way to back up keys and configuration?

[Alphax]

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Adam Funk wrote:
> What's the best way to back up my GnuPG keyrings -- just a tar.gz of the 
> ~/.gnupg directory?
> 
> Or is there any advantage to producing additional files with the 
> "--export" and "--export-secret-keys" commands?
> 
> (I know that the backups then need to be stored securely.)
> 

Not sure if there is any advantage, but ASCII-armored files are always
nice :)

I keep a log of what keys I import (by date, including expiration &
revocation status) and date my keyring backups - just in case it gets
corrupted, but I want to rebuild my keyring from some saved point.

Make sure *before you do anything else* that you have a backup of your
secret key *and a revocation certificate*, in case anything bad happens...

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