GPG cannot import public key

[David Shaw]

On Apr 23, 2014, at 11:14 PM, David Shaw <dshaw at jabberwocky.com> wrote:

> On Apr 23, 2014, at 3:24 PM, helices <gpg at mdsresource.net> wrote:
> 
>> No matter how I try, I cannot encrypt a file using that public key, even using --edit-key to assign trust:
>> 
>> gpg: 845F5188: skipped: Unusable public key
>> 
>> gpg: /tmp/test.txt: encryption failed: Unusable public key
>> 
>> 
>> The owner of the public key insists that it is self-signed; but, our GPG cannot find the self-signature
> 
> It doesn't look like it's self-signed, but without looking at the key itself, I couldn't say for sure.  Is it posted anywhere on the net?
> 
> In any event, you can override the check for encryption with the same flag you used to override the check on import.  So:
> 
>  gpg -r 845F5188 --allow-non-selfsigned-uid -e the-file-i-am-encrypting-etc.txt

I should add, though, that overriding these checks is something you should do with suitable verification of the key.  Don't override the check unless you know what you're doing, and have assured yourself that the key you are encrypting to is really owned by the person/group that you believe it is.  Those checks are there for a reason.

David