[ale] gpg keyring backup / restore

[Brandon Checketts]

Greg Freemyer wrote:
> All,
> 
> I have a tar backup of my .gnupg directory.
> 
> Not sure how, but that directory seems to have become corrupt and gpg
> is not showing any keys.
> 
> I hoped (assumed) I could just restore the tar file and all would be good.
> 
> Seems not to be true.
> 
> Is there a work around?  In particular, I did not export my private
> key and back it up as an ascii file, so ...
> 
> Thanks
> Greg


Greg,

You might check permissions on the directory and key files to ensure
that your private key files are not readable by any user other than
yourself.   If memory serves correct, gnupg will intentionally fail to
use private keys that are readable by anybody else.

Also, running gpg with the --verbose argument might display some output
that would be helpful in troubleshooting.   To dig in even further, try
to strace the process to see if it is even reading the your .gnupg
directory.

Thanks,
Brandon Checketts