Problem removing a public key whose private key is gone

[Alphax]

Jeremiah Foster wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-03-07 at 19:35 -0500, Atom Smasher wrote:
> 
>>On Tue, 7 Mar 2006, Jeremiah Foster wrote:
>>
<snip>
> 
>>if you have any doubts about doing it right, or if you're having a bad 
>>day, backup the keyring before trying to delete anything from it.
>>
>>if no one else has a copy of the key, you're done. if the key is in 
>>circulation among key-servers (and if you don't have a revocation 
>>certificate) you're beat.
> 
> 
> The key is on key servers and I do not have a revocation cert. Would you
> elaborate on "beat"?  
> 

Sore out of luck. People will keep using the key which is on the key
server, and you will be unable to do anything except reply "Sorry, I
lost that secret key, can't decrypt, here is my new key".

This is why it is *very* important to have both a backup of you secret
keys & a revovation certificate.

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