Another bug, can't export subkeys or private keys

Robert J. Hansen rjh at sixdemonbag.org
Tue Jun 2 02:12:20 CEST 2026


> I'm not aware of any use case where you would want to 
> export only the public subkey, and it would not be usable without its 
> primary in any case.
I can imagine a use case, it's just ... weird: if you need to verify 
signatures and certifications made with the corresponding private subkey 
*and* you're so space-confined you need to strip things down as far as 
possible, like you're in some embedded space on a ridiculously small 
PIC. I've seen environments where that requirement exists.

So, yeah, it's a weird one: an embedded environment so small you want to 
strip everything to the bone, but still powerful enough to run GnuPG. 
I'm not saying it's impossible, just ... weird, like someone confessing 
from the grave via a seance that there is in fact no life after death. 
It's the kind of thing to make you scratch your head and think things 
have gotten pretty weird around here.


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