Gnupg-users Digest, Vol 115, Issue 11

[Steven C. Morreale, M.D./M.P.H.]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 4/11/13 4:13 AM, gnupg-users-request at gnupg.org wrote:
> Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:05:46 +0930 From: Ashley Holman 
> <dscvlt at gmail.com> To: gnupg-users at gnupg.org Subject: Backing up 
> Private Keys Message-ID: 
> <CAOXABZrWAuxWGuqGm7Y48+zF1jp84V1Y-wpLRcJHZi9Um6n2AQ at mail.gmail.com>
>
>
> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> When I export my private key using `gpg --export-secret-key 
> --armor', and then delete all of my keys and re-impot from the 
> exported secret key, it seems to give me both the public and 
> private key back.  Does this mean that the public key is exported 
> along with the private key?
> 
> I'm just trying to work out whether I need to export both the 
> public and private keys or if --export-secret-key is enough.
> 
> Thanks very much Ash

Hello Ash,

I just happened to be looking through the GPG USERS message digest and
saw this post.  Excited, I realized I knew the answer!

Welcome to GNU Privacy Guard!
Your secret keys are able to recreate the public key, but not vice-versa.
So if you need to share a public key with someone, export your public
key and share it or put it on biglumber.com or the key server.

Your secret key should always be backed up and never shared... it is
all you need, you don't need to "back-up" your public key (which is
worthless without the secret key to go with it on your computer(s)).

I hope this helps you.

- -Steve

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.18 (Darwin)
Comment: GPGTools - http://gpgtools.org
Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/

iEYEARECAAYFAlFn0W4ACgkQAS9dxxA237qnDwCffAfRDdDJtu4Zigg1pXPEx6Xp
LeUAnRppVcHNTtqviwG02ti2SnPNmSDm
=C7Uf
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 0x1036DFBA.asc
Type: application/pgp-keys
Size: 20691 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: </pipermail/attachments/20130412/ef579126/attachment.key>