comments on uid

freejack at is-not-my.name freejack at is-not-my.name
Sun Mar 18 09:13:15 CET 2012


> Well, the UID is what other people sign. Suppose by a wonderful
> coincidence my name is Barack Obama. To prevent confusion, I create this
> UID "Barack Obama (NOT the US president) <barack at is-my.name"  
>
>  People sign this. They have seen my birth certificate... erm... I mean
>  passport :)
 
Hahaha!!! Damn Hawaiins!
 
> and the comment is quite helpful. Now I change the comment. I don't think
> by now I need to spell it out anymore, but here goes: 
> 
>  "Barack Obama (US president) <barack at is-my.name"
> 
>  People might not be so happy they signed this UID.
 
Alright that's a good answer but aren't people just confirming the email
address belongs to a known signer when they sign a key? Does it really
matter what the UID comment is? I think it may be going a bit too far to say
the UID is guaranteed.
 
> But you can simply create a new UID (command adduid from --edit-key) and
> delete the old UID (command deluid). That, as you say, doesn't help when
> it's on a keyserver as you can't delete data from a key on a
> keyserver. Likewise, people who already have a copy of your key and import
> your "new" key will still have the old UID as well(!). 
 
Do I have to do anything with the keys when adding a UID and deleting the
old one? I don't remember.
 
> When other people already have your key, revoking the UID (command revuid
> from --edit-key) is the standard way, if you think it's worth it for a
> changed comment. As people who sign your key sign an UID, you also "lose"
> all signatures when you revoke the signed UID. 
 
My question is on a situation I didn't add the comment by mistake when I
created the key and now I'd like to be able to add a comment. The key isn't
signed etc. Thanks.



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