v4 rsa subkey peculiarity

[David Shaw]

On Wed, Feb 11, 2004 at 03:16:20PM -0800, vedaal at hush.com wrote:
> >Message: 3
> >Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 11:13:19 -0500
> >From: David Shaw <dshaw at jabberwocky.com>
> >Subject: Re: v4 rsa subkey peculiarity
> >To: gnupg-users at gnupg.org
> >Message-ID: <20040211161318.GA16749 at jabberwocky.com>
> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> >GnuPG will always try and use a subkey
> >rather than the primary, 
>  
> why should this be for 'signing' as well as for 'encrypting'?
> 
> if subkeys are intended primarily for encrypting, and the master key
> primarily for signing, then it would seem reasonable that GnuPG
> should try to use the master for signing, and the subkey for
> encrypting, and allow for user preferences by having the user '!'
> appropriately

Subkeys aren't intended primarily for encryption.  Subkeys are
intended (in GnuPG) primarily for everything.  GnuPG will always try
to use a subkey over the primary key, unless there isn't a subkey that
is usable, or the user requests something specific.

David