Changing the email address of a key

[Richi Lists]

I can't get it to work wether I try it on the primary or the sub key and
whether I use gpg or gpg2.

Rgds
Richard

$ gpg2 -v --edit-key E8401492!
gpg (GnuPG) 2.0.17; Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

gpg: using subkey E8401492 instead of primary key 0AE275A9
Secret key is available.

gpg: using PGP trust model
pub  2048R/0AE275A9  created: 2012-08-07  expires: 2022-08-05  usage:
SC  
                     trust: ultimate      validity: ultimate
sub  2048R/8760DB3E  created: 2012-08-07  expires: never       usage:
E   
sub  2048R/E8401492  created: 2012-08-07  expires: never       usage:
S   
sub  2048R/5A097EF6  created: 2012-08-07  expires: never       usage:
S   
sub  2048R/EC980139  created: 2012-08-07  expires: 2022-08-05  usage:
E   
[ultimate] (1). Richard Ulrich (ulrichard) <richiulr at gmail.com>

gpg> adduid
Real name: Richard Ulrich
Email address: richi at paraeasy.ch
Comment: ulrichard
You selected this USER-ID:
    "Richard Ulrich (ulrichard) <richi at paraeasy.ch>"

Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? o
gpg: secret key parts are not available
gpg: signing failed: Unusable secret key



$ gpg2 -s -v -u E8401492! setup_my_system.sh
gpg: no secret subkey for public subkey EC980139 - ignoring
gpg: using subkey E8401492 instead of primary key 0AE275A9
gpg: writing to `setup_my_system.sh.gpg'
gpg: using subkey E8401492 instead of primary key 0AE275A9
gpg: RSA/SHA1 signature from: "E8401492 Richard Ulrich (ulrichard)
<richiulr at gmail.com>"


On Mi, 2012-08-29 at 08:49 +0200, Peter Lebbing wrote:
> On 28/08/12 21:54, Richi Lists wrote:
> > Will this also write also to the smart-card or are the changes only in
> > the local keyring?
> 
> UIDs are not stored on the smartcard, so it does not matter.
> 
> > I'm a bit hesitant because the full disk encryption on my netbook works
> > also with the same key, and I don't want to reinstall the whole thing.
> 
> Understandable. If I understand correctly, you used GnuPG to encrypt the file
> that unlocks your netbook? In that case, the *uid commands should be safe,
> because they do not influence decryption of files. To be on the safe side, keep
> a copy of your key as it is now, and after you changed the e-mail address, try
> to decrypt some file. If that works, it should also decrypt the file that
> unlocks your netbook.
> 
> It is wise to keep a copy of your key as it is now around just in case, anyway.
> If you do something wrong, you can take the backup and start over.
> 
> Peter.
>