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Why the "--export-secret-key" switch is not listed in help screen?

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moses.mason at gmail

May 6, 2012, 5:39 AM

Post #1 of 7 (283 views)
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Why the "--export-secret-key" switch is not listed in help screen?

Hi,

I've notice the switch "--export-secret-key" is not listed in the help
screen (i.e. gpg --help) and I spend a lot of time to find it. It
seems to be one of the most used switch for backup private keys and
sync keys between machines. Could the developer add this switch to the
help screen? It would save users a lot of time.

Thanks.

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mika.henrik.mainio at hotmail

May 6, 2012, 7:11 AM

Post #2 of 7 (270 views)
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Re: Why the "--export-secret-key" switch is not listed in help screen? [In reply to]

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

06.05.2012 15:39, Moses kirjoitti:
> Hi,
>
> I've notice the switch "--export-secret-key" is not listed in the
> help screen (i.e. gpg --help) and I spend a lot of time to find it.
> It seems to be one of the most used switch for backup private keys
> and sync keys between machines. Could the developer add this switch
> to the help screen? It would save users a lot of time.
>
> Thanks.

It seems that you are right. It's not mentioned in --help, but it's
mentioned in the manual page.

> --export-secret-keys

>

> --export-secret-subkeys

> Same as --export, but exports the secret keys
instead. This is
> normally not very useful and a security risk. The
second form
> of the command has the special property to render
the secret
> part of the primary key useless; this is a GNU
extension to
> OpenPGP and other implementations can not be
expected to suc‐
> cessfully import such a key. See the option
- --simple-sk-check‐
> sum if you want to import such an exported key
with an older
> OpenPGP implementation.
>

I found that option by Googling for "gpg cheat sheet".

Hopefully someone else can answer this question.

PS. Sorry for weird looking paste. It's directly copy-pasted from most
and copy-pasting from pager looks weird always.

- --
Mika Suomalainen
gpg --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys 4DB53CFE82A46728
Key fingerprint = 24BC 1573 B8EE D666 D10A AA65 4DB5 3CFE 82A4 6728
http://mkaysi.github.com/
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Version: GnuPG v2.0.19 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

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peter at digitalbrains

May 6, 2012, 11:15 AM

Post #3 of 7 (264 views)
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Re: Why the "--export-secret-key" switch is not listed in help screen? [In reply to]

It does say in the "gpg --help" output:

> (See the man page for a complete listing of all commands and options)

There are many more options and also commands in the full man(ual) page.
I suppose it was thought that exporting a private key was such a
relatively "rarely used" command it did not need to be among the most
used commands listed by "--help". Or it was simply an oversight :).

Peter.

--
I use the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) in combination with Enigmail.
You can send me encrypted mail if you want some privacy.
My key is available at http://wwwhome.cs.utwente.nl/~lebbing/pubkey.txt

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mika.henrik.mainio at hotmail

May 6, 2012, 11:28 AM

Post #4 of 7 (265 views)
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Re: Why the "--export-secret-key" switch is not listed in help screen? [In reply to]

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

06.05.2012 21:15, Peter Lebbing kirjoitti:
> It does say in the "gpg --help" output:
>
>> (See the man page for a complete listing of all commands and
>> options)
>
> There are many more options and also commands in the full man(ual)
> page. I suppose it was thought that exporting a private key was
> such a relatively "rarely used" command it did not need to be among
> the most used commands listed by "--help". Or it was simply an
> oversight :).
>
> Peter.
>

It shouldn't be rarely used. The first thing to do after creating a
key should be backing it up somewhere just in case something happens
someday in my opinion.

- --
Mika Suomalainen
gpg --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys 4DB53CFE82A46728
Key fingerprint = 24BC 1573 B8EE D666 D10A AA65 4DB5 3CFE 82A4 6728
http://mkaysi.github.com/
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.19 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

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t/vrCBAsMBRwhwY+XqMf
=ZPTC
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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John at enigmail

May 6, 2012, 4:44 PM

Post #5 of 7 (267 views)
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Re: Why the "--export-secret-key" switch is not listed in help screen? [In reply to]

Mika Suomalainen wrote:
> 06.05.2012 21:15, Peter Lebbing kirjoitti:
>> It does say in the "gpg --help" output:
>
>>> (See the man page for a complete listing of all commands and
>>> options)
>
>> There are many more options and also commands in the full man(ual)
>> page. I suppose it was thought that exporting a private key was
>> such a relatively "rarely used" command it did not need to be among
>> the most used commands listed by "--help". Or it was simply an
>> oversight :).
>
>> Peter.
>
>
> It shouldn't be rarely used. The first thing to do after creating a
> key should be backing it up somewhere just in case something happens
> someday in my opinion.

I've heard rumor that Werner and Co. gratefully welcome patch submissions,
especially so, for documentation issues, IMNSHO

I've even had some code patches accepted. :-)

Did you mean to attach a patch correcting this, or did it get stripped off by
some poorly behaved MTA?

-John

--
John P. Clizbe Inet: John (a) Gingerbear DAWT net
SKS/Enigmail/PGP-EKP or: John ( @ ) Enigmail DAWT net
FSF Assoc #995 / FSFE Fellow #1797 hkp://keyserver.gingerbear.net or
mailto:pgp-public-keys [at] gingerbear?subject=HELP

Q:"Just how do the residents of Haiku, Hawai'i hold conversations?"
A:"An odd melody / island voices on the winds / surplus of vowels"

--
John P. Clizbe Inet:John (a) Mozilla-Enigmail.org
FSF Assoc #995 / FSFE Fellow #1797 hkp://keyserver.gingerbear.net or
mailto:pgp-public-keys [at] gingerbear?subject=HELP

Q:"Just how do the residents of Haiku, Hawai'i hold conversations?"
A:"An odd melody / island voices on the winds / surplus of vowels"

Attachments:

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wk at gnupg

May 7, 2012, 1:30 AM

Post #6 of 7 (267 views)
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Re: Why the "--export-secret-key" switch is not listed in help screen? [In reply to]

On Sun, 6 May 2012 20:15, peter [at] digitalbrains said:

> I suppose it was thought that exporting a private key was such a
> relatively "rarely used" command it did not need to be among the most

It is also possible that I did not list it with --help so that the user
is required to read the full blurb:

--export-secret-keys
--export-secret-subkeys

Same as --export, but exports the secret keys instead.
This is normally not very useful and a security risk. The
second form of the command has the special property to
render the secret part of the primary key useless; this is
a GNU extension to OpenPGP and other implementations can
not be expected to successfully import such a key.

See the option --simple-sk-checksum if you want to import
such an exported key with an older OpenPGP implementation.

Shalom-Salam,

Werner

--
Die Gedanken sind frei. Ausnahmen regelt ein Bundesgesetz.

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peter at digitalbrains

May 7, 2012, 2:12 AM

Post #7 of 7 (265 views)
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Re: Why the "--export-secret-key" switch is not listed in help screen? [In reply to]

On 07/05/12 10:30, Werner Koch wrote:
> On Sun, 6 May 2012 20:15, peter [at] digitalbrains said:
>> I suppose it was thought
>
> It is also possible that I

Haha! Nice one :)

Peter.

--
I use the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) in combination with Enigmail.
You can send me encrypted mail if you want some privacy.
My key is available at http://wwwhome.cs.utwente.nl/~lebbing/pubkey.txt

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