"http" & "finger" keyserver schemes

[David Shaw]

On Sun, Feb 06, 2005 at 08:52:00PM -0800, ms419 at freezone.co.uk wrote:
> I don't get how to receive keys using using the "http" & "finger" 
> keyserver schemes.
> 
> I tried some variations on -
> 
> 
> 	gpg --keyserver finger:wk at g10code.com --recv-keys
> 
> 	gpg --keyserver "http://eatflamingdeath.com/~dleslie/pubkey.asc" 
> --recv-keys
> 
> 
> - but nothing I tried worked. Receiving keys from "ldap" or "hkp" 
> keyservers is no problem -
> 
> 
> 	gpg --keyserver ldap://keyserver.pgp.com --search-keys Lypkie
> 
> 	gpg --keyserver hkp://pgp.mit.edu --search-keys Demwell
> 
> 
> Frustratingly, I couldn't find examples on the web or in the 
> documentation of using "http" or "finger" keyserver schemes. Can anyone 
> help?

http and finger schemes are most useful for putting in preferred
keyserver URLs so the key can be automatically refreshed.  They're not
really intended for use on the command line, but it's possible to fool
the system into working on the command line by doing something like:

  gpg --keyserver finger:the_finger at example.com --recv-keys 99999999

i.e. "receive key 99999999 from finger:the_finger at example.com".  The
key that arrives probably won't be 99999999, but it'll arrive anyway.

David