2 ways of signing files

[David Shaw]

On Sat, Jan 15, 2005 at 09:26:00AM -0800, Mark Ivs wrote:
> Hello,
> I would like to know if there are 2 ways of signing.
> Please take a look at the following scenarios.
> 
> Scenario 1:
> I add Blake's public key to my key ring. I can do the
> following 2 steps to edit and sign Blake's public key.
> 1. gpg --edit-key blake at cyb.org
> 2. Command> sign
> This will sign the key. So, now I can encrypt the file
> by doing the following...
> 'gpg --recipient "blake at cyb.org" --output
> $rootpath\\$filepgp --encrypt
> $rootpath\\encrypted\\$datafile`
> 
> When Blake gets the encrypted file, does it mean that
> the file is also signed?
> 
> Scenario 2:
> I can encrypt and sign by doing the following.
> 'gpg --recipient "XXX" --output $rootpath\\$filepgp
> --sign --encrypt $rootpath\\encrypted\\$datafile`
> 
> Can someone please tell me if scenario 1 and 2 are
> basically doing the same thing?

No.  They are completely different and unrelated.  Scenario 1 is you
signing Blake's key.  Scenario 2 is you signing a document.  The first
is you making a statement about Blake's key.  The second is you making
a statement about the document you are encrypting.

David