how to transfer a secret key to another comp?

[NetMail]

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I'm very new to encryption, and have been following this list (and
others) closely to learn as much as I can.  I too keep my keys on both a
desktop and a laptop.  I've simply been copying the secring.gpg and
pubring.gpg files between them - rather than the entire directory -
whenever I have any kind of change on one or the other, and everything
seems to work just fine.  Am I missing something by doing this rather
than an export and import?

|>
|>i have the trouble of having to transfer and keep updated my laptop...
|>on the main station i made an --export and --export-secret-key and on
|>the laptop i made --import of both
|>--list-keys is fine...
|>
|>but if i try to sign anything i get:
|>gpg -u bboett at adlp.org --sign test.mail
|>gpg: secret key parts are not available
|>gpg: skipped `bboett at adlp.org': general error
|>gpg: signing failed: general error
|>
|>naturally i could copy over the whole .gnupg directory.... but there
|>should be a mechanism to achieve this without resorting to such
|>extremities?


- - Thor
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