Chapter 3. Building Custom Packages
11
be informed of its expiration and supplied with a new public key. It is recommended that
you select no expiration date. If you do not choose an expiration date, you are asked to
confirm your decision:
Key does not expire at all
Is this correct (y/n)?
Press [y] to confirm your decision.
Your next task is to provide a User-ID containing your name, your email address, and an
optional comment. Each is requested individually. When you are finished, you are pre-
sented with a summary of the information you entered.
Once you accept your choices, you enter a passphrase.
Tip
Like your account passwords, a good passphrase is essential for optimal security in
GnuPG. Mix your passphrase with uppercase and lowercase letters, use numbers, and/or
include punctuation marks.
Once you enter and verify your passphrase, your keys are generated. A message similar to
the following appears:
We need to generate a lot of random bytes. It is a good idea to perform
some other action (type on the keyboard, move the mouse, utilize the
disks) during the prime generation; this gives the random number
generator a better chance to gain enough entropy.
+++++.+++++.++++++++....++++++++++..+++++.+++++.+++++++.+++++++
+++.++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++..........................++++
When the activity on the screen ceases, your new keys are placed in the directory
.gnupg
in root’s home directory. This location is because you are ran the command as root. To list
your root keys, use the command:
gpg --list-keys
The output is similar to the following:
/root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
-----------------------------------------
pub 1024D/B7085C8A 2002-02-18
Your Name
<
you@example.com
>
sub 1024g/E12AF9C4 2002-02-18
To retrieve your public key, use the following command:
