Meaning of "sig! N" self-signature

[David Shaw]

On Sun, Nov 04, 2007 at 08:52:31AM -0500, Kara wrote:
> ====
> 
> I've received a key with two userIDs (identify and keyIDs changed):
> 
>      uid  Dummy Name <dummy at gmail.com>
>      sig!     N   12345678 2007-10-29  [self-signature]
> 
>      uid  Dummy Name
>      sig!         123456789 2007-10-19  [self-signature]
> 
> ====
> 
> Question 1:  In the first userID's self-signature what does
>              the "N" indicate?

There is a notation on the signature.  A notation allows the issuer of
the signature to add special instructions or general information to be
seen by whoever verifies the signature.

> Question 2:  And how would one generate such a self-signature.

gpg --cert-notation "foo=bar"

This sets a notation named "foo" that contains the contents "bar".

David