Keypair is expiring.

[David Shaw]

On Jul 20, 2010, at 9:38 AM, Wolff, Alex wrote:

> Back in 2005 when I created my private/public key pair I never believed the universe would still exist today..hence I set an expiration date of 2010.  Since it’s expiringin the next couple of months and I am not sure what my options are?
>  
> Can I change the expiration date of my key pair to not expire…without having to re-issue another public key to all my encryption partners?

Yes and no.  You can indeed change the expiration date of your key (use "gpg --edit-key THEKEY" and then "expire"), but you must give your public key to your encryption partners again so they get the new updated key.

> Or do I have to re-issue?

That is another option.  Neither option is right or wrong.  If you have a bunch of signatures on your key that you want to keep, you'd probably do better with changing the expiration date.  If you want to take this opportunity to make a larger key, then you could re-issue.

David