On Sat, 15 Jan 2011 12:27:58 -0500, David Shaw <ds...@jabberwocky.com> wrote:
>On Jan 15, 2011, at 11:13 AM, Bo Berglund wrote: > >> I am building an application for GPG encryption, which ultimately will >> be integrated into the Win7X64 Explorer context menu. >> I have used the command line command "gpg2 -k" to retrieve a ley list >> for the current key ring. Works fine. Now it is time for parsing and I >> have a few questions: >> >> The output from the command looks like this (shortened): >> C:/Documents and Settings/Bosse/Application Data/gnupg/pubring.gpg >> ------------------------------------------------------------------ >> pub 1024D/C50DAFF8 2006-08-19 >> uid Bo Berglund <bo.bergl...@gmail.com> >> sub 2048g/011AD792 2006-08-19 >> >> pub 1024D/41C6E930 2003-04-10 >> uid Richard Jones <rich...@commonground.com.au> >> uid Richard Jones <rich...@mechanicalcat.net> >> uid Richard Jones <richardjo...@optushome.com.au> >> sub 1024g/40AD97DF 2003-04-10 >> >> Now, I understand most of this but I would like to know the >> significance of these items: >> >> 1) In the pub line the first item is a number + a letter. I assume >> that the number is the bit length of the key, but what does the letter >> mean? And which are the possible letters? > >Yes, the number is the bit length of the key. The letters are: > >RSA == R >DSA == D >Elgamal == g (only seen in subkeys) > >Historically there was a "G" for an Elgamal key that could both encrypt and >sign, but that was dropped from OpenPGP. The current lowercase "g" Elgamal is >an encrypt-only key. > >> 2) What does the last line of each key mean, which starts with sub? >> Notice that there is a different hex code and different letter >> following the key length... > >Sub is for subkeys. They are other keys that go along with the main, or >primary, key. A common usage pattern is for the primary to be used for >signing, and the subkey used to encryption. > >> 3) Some keys have several uid lines, is there a maximum or minimum >> number here? It looks like a number of email addresses attached to the >> key, is this correct? > >There is a minimum of 1. There is no maximum. There are also "uat" lines, of >which there are zero or more. A uat is used to store other things aside from >text (for example, photo IDs). > >> 4) I only have one public keyring, but I assume that it is possible to >> have several? If so will the -k command list these after each other? >> The first output line seems to be the actual keyring location. > >It is possible to have several. > >I note that you are trying to parse the output, though. That is a bad idea, >as the format is intended for human consumption, and not machine parsing. The >machine format is stable, and the human format is subject to change. Use the >--with-colons option to enable machine parsing. > >David THanks, indeed the --with-colons gave a completely different output... I was just about to ask of the date format (if it changes between operating systems or such) but now I have a different problem in understanding the machine readable format. Very hard to understand. Is there a parsing guide somewhere? -- Bo Berglund Developer in Sweden _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
