Importing keys

[David Shaw]

On Wed, Sep 14, 2005 at 07:51:37PM +0930, Alphax wrote:
> Werner Koch wrote:
> > On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 10:42:10 +0100, Bob Henson said:
> > 
> > 
> >>I can't find anything in the man page about key import file formats. Other
> >>than ascii files, can GnuPG import any other file formats and if so what?
> > 
> > 
> > gpg knows about both OpenPGP defiend formats: Binary and ASCII
> > armored.  It will automagically detect the mode.  See rfc2440 for the
> > OpenPGP key formats.
> > 
> >
> 
> Can GPG use ascii-armored keyrings? Or must keyrings be binary files?

Keyrings must be binary format.

Incidentally, keyring format isn't defined by the RFC - just the
import/export transport format.  Historically, though, most programs
use the binary format.  It isn't guaranteed to stay this way forever,
and this is why there is the frequent advice to not rely on the fact
that a keyring is just a block of binary keys glued together.

David