Changing subkeys: what impact does it have?

[David Shaw]

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 11:00:14AM -0400, Faramir wrote:
> Hello!
>       If I make 1 subkey for signing, and another one for encryption,
> and after a while I delete them and make a new subkey's pair, would I be
> able to read messages encrypted to me with the old pair?

No.  If you delete the encryption subkey, then you will not be able to
decrypt.  The signing subkey is not involved in encryption, so you can
delete that one without affecting encrypted messages.

> Does my public
> key change when I add or delete a subkey?

Aside from the obvious addition or removal of a subkey, no.

David