gpg - difference --encrypt-to and --recipient

Gernot Pokorny gernot.pokorny.dev at gmail.com
Mon Dec 31 12:04:29 CET 2018


But isn't the documentation wrong for the edge-case when you specify
--encryp-to within gpg.conf and do not specify a recipient? According to
that documentation when you only specify --encrypt-to, but no --recipient,
then the value of --encrypt-to should also not be used and that means we
would have no valid command and that there should be an error, which is not
the case in the gpg implementation. The gpg that I have running simply
takes the name from encrypt-to as a recipient, which makes sense, but is
not in sync with the documentation.

On Mon, Dec 31, 2018 at 7:57 AM Dirk Gottschalk via Gnupg-users <
gnupg-users at gnupg.org> wrote:

> Hello.
>
> Am Sonntag, den 30.12.2018, 22:40 +0100 schrieb Stefan Claas:
> > On Sun, 30 Dec 2018 18:05:37 +0100, Gernot Pokorny wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > > What is the difference between --encrypt-to and --recipient and
> > > what are the advantages and disadvantages of using one over the
> > > other, which one should you use for encrypting your own files and
> > > what does the following mean?
>
> > > --encrypt-to ... The key specified by name is used only when there
> > > are other recipients given by the user or by use of the option
> > > recipient. ...
>
> > Simply said you put encrypt-to, with your key-id, in your gpg.conf
> > and when you do a gpg --recipient yourfriend it encrypts to your
> > friend and also to you.
>
> Yes, that's correct. Anyways, I prefer using the --hidden-recipient for
> this purpose. That prevents the disclosure of the communication paths
> with pure GPG-Packet analysis.
>
> Regards,
> Dirk
>
> --
> Dirk Gottschalk
> Paulusstrasse 6-8
> 52064 Aachen, Germany
>
> GPG: DDCB AF8E 0132 AA54 20AB  B864 4081 0B18 1ED8 E838
> Keybase.io: https://keybase.io/dgottschalk
> GitHub: https://github.com/Dirk1980ac
>
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