Why is --auto-key-locate only for encrypting?

[raf]

On Thu, Sep 02, 2021 at 01:10:40PM +0200, Ingo Klöcker <kloecker at kde.org> wrote:

> On Donnerstag, 2. September 2021 01:28:42 CEST raf via Gnupg-users wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 01, 2021 at 01:50:36PM +0200, Ingo Klöcker <kloecker at kde.org> 
> wrote:
> > > On Mittwoch, 1. September 2021 07:55:21 CEST raf via Gnupg-users wrote:
> > > > Why is the --auto-key-locate only for encrypting (says
> > > > the gpg(1) manpage)? Wouldn't it also be useful when
> > > > receiving emails and verifying signatures?
> > > 
> > > --auto-key-locate looks up keys by email address. It makes no sense when
> > > verifying signatures because in this case you already know the key id the
> > > signature was made with, so that there's no reason to look up the key by
> > > email address (which is ambiguous).
> > 
> > Thanks. I don't understand why it makes no sense, but
> > I'll take your word for it. But I can think of a reason
> > to look up the key by email address even though you
> > have the keyid from the signature: when the key is not
> > on a keyserver or a WKD server, but is in a DNS
> > OPENPGPKEY record (DANE). But perhaps that's not a thing.
> 
> I retract my claim that is makes no sense. It can make sense and that's why 
> --auto-key-retrieve also does a lookup by email address on WKD.
> 
> > > The equivalent for automatic look-up of keys when verifying signatures is
> > > --auto-key-retrieve.
> > 
> > Thanks, but the manpage doesn't include DANE as one of
> > the lookup methods for that option. That's what I was
> > hoping for.
> > 
> > Since this option does a WKD lookup if wkd is in the
> > auto-key-locate list (and --disable-signer-uid isn't
> > used), it seems that it would make sense to do a DANE
> > lookup if dane is in the auto-key-locate list (and
> > --disable-signer-uid isn't used).
> 
> So what you actually want is that --auto-key-retrieve also does a DANE lookup 
> or in fact all kinds of lookup supported by --auto-key-locate. Did you check 
> that it not already does this (even if the man page doesn't mention it)? If 
> yes, then I'd say submit a request for this feature at https://dev.gnupg.org.
> 
> Regards,
> Ingo

I didn't check. I just based it on the manpage. I just
checked the NEWS file, and there's no mention of such
functionality. I'll submit a feature request. Thanks.

cheers,
raf