Clarification on purpose of subordinate keys

[Charly Avital]

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John,

here's the information  I get on your key:
pub  1024D/F65A739E  created: 2002-10-02  expires: never       usage: CS
                      trust: unknown       validity: unknown
sub  1024R/C7658196  created: 2003-10-02  expires: never       usage: E
sub  1024g/C6C536C3  created: 2002-10-02  expired: 2003-10-02  usage: E
sub  1024D/B23241CB  created: 2003-10-01  expires: never       usage: SA

[ unknown] (1). "John M. Harrold" <jmh at member.fsf.org>
[ unknown] (2)  John Mark Harrold <jmh17 at pitt.edu>
[ unknown] (3)  [jpeg image of size 5337]

On 2003-10-01 you generated an additional subkey B23241CB (usage: SA = 
Sign Authenticate). This is the subkey that is being used for signing, 
instead of the primary key F65A739E. In order to authenticate your 
signature, the recipient of your signed messages must have this 
additional subkey in your key's keyblock, in his/her pubring.

The other subkeys (usage: E) are used to encrypt (to you).

Don't pay attention to the "unknown", it means that in my keyring, your 
key's trust is unknown, because I have not signed your key and have not 
assigned trust to it.

Charly

On Mar 27, 2005, at 5:50 PM, John Harrold wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've been signing my emails with my gpg key (F65A739E) at least that 
> is what
> mutt says.  However,  when it's sent it appears to be signed with a 
> sub key
> (B23241CB). Can someone explain the purpose of subordinate keys and 
> what I'm
> doing wrong?
>
> -----------------------------
> pub   1024D/F65A739E 2002-10-02
> uid                  "John M. Harrold" <jmh at member.fsf.org>
> uid                  John Mark Harrold <jmh17 at pitt.edu>
> uid                  [jpeg image of size 5337]
> sub   1024D/B23241CB 2003-10-01
> sub   1024R/C7658196 2003-10-02
>
> [...]

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