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# The GNU Privacy Handbook

Copyright 1999 by The Free Software Foundation

Please direct questions, bug reports, or suggesstions concerning this manual to the maintainer, Mike Ashley (`<[jashley@acm.org][1]>`). Contributors to this manual also include Matthew Copeland, Joergen Grahn, and David A. Wheeler. J Horacio MG has translated the manual to Spanish.

This manual may be redistributed under the terms of the [GNU General Public License][2].

* * *

**Table of Contents**
1\. [Getting Started][3]
: 

[Generating a new keypair][4]
: 

[Generating a revocation certificate][5]

[Exchanging keys][6]
: 

[Exporting a public key][7]
[Importing a public key][8]

[Encrypting and decrypting documents][9]
[Making and verifying signatures][10]
: 

[Clearsigned documents][11]
[Detached signatures][12]

2\. [Concepts][13]
: 

[Symmetric ciphers][14]
[Public-key ciphers][15]
[Hybrid ciphers][16]
[Digital signatures][17]

3\. [Key Management][18]
: 

[Managing your own keypair][19]
: 

[Key integrity][20]
[Adding and deleting key components][21]
[Revoking key components][22]
[Updating a key's expiration time][23]

[Validating other keys on your public keyring][24]
: 

[Trust in a key's owner][25]
[Using trust to validate keys][26]

[Distributing keys][27]

4\. [Daily use of GnuPG][28]
: 

[Defining your security needs][29]
: 

[Choosing a key size][30]
[Protecting your private key][31]
[Selecting expiration dates and using subkeys][32]
[Managing your web of trust][33]

[Building your web of trust][34]
[Using GnuPG legally][35]

5\. [Topics][36]
: 

[Writing user interfaces][37]

I. [Command Reference][38]
: 

[sign][39] — sign a document
[detach-signature][40] — make a detached signature
[encrypt][41] — encrypt a document
[symmetric][42] — encrypt a document using only a symmetric encryption algorithm
[decrypt][43] — decrypt an encrypted document
[clearsign][44] — make a cleartext signature
[verify][45] — verify a signed document
[gen-key][46] — generate a new keypair
[gen-revoke][47] — generate a revocation certificate for a public/private keypair
[send-keys][48] — send keys to a key server
[recv-keys][49] — retrieve keys from a key server
[list-keys][50] — list information about keys
[list-public-keys][51] — list keys on public keyrings
[list-secret-keys][52] — list keys on secret keyrings
[list-sigs][53] — list information about keys including signatures
[check-sigs][54] — list information about keys including validated signatures
[fingerprint][55] — display key fingerprints
[import][56] — import keys to a local keyring
[fast-import][57] — import/merge keys
[export][58] — export keys from a local keyring
[export-all][59] — export all public keys
[export-secret-keys][60] — export secret keys
[edit-key][61] — presents a menu for operating on keys
[sign-key][62] — sign a public key with a private key
[lsign-key][63] — locally sign a public key with a private key
[delete-key][64] — remove a public key
[delete-secret-key][65] — remove a public and private key
[store][66] — make only simple rfc1991 packets
[export-ownertrust][67] — export assigned owner-trust values
[import-ownertrust][68] — import owner-trust values
[update-trustdb][69] — update the trust database 
[print-md][70] — display message digests
[gen-random][71] — generate random data
[gen-prime][72] — ?
[version][73] — display version information
[warranty][74] — display warranty information
[help][75] — display usage information

II. [Options Reference][76]
: 

[keyserver][77] — specify the keyserver to use to locate keys
[output][78] — specify the file in which to place output
[recipient][79] — specify the recipient of a public-key encrypted document
[default-recipient][80] — specify the default recipient of a public-key encrypted document
[default-recipient-self][81] — use the default key user ID as the default recipient of a public-key encrypted document
[no-default-recipient][82] — ignore the options default-recipient and default-recipient-self
[encrypt-to][83] — specify an additional recipient of a public-key encrypted document
[no-encrypt-to][84] — ignore the option encrypt-to
[armor][85] — ASCII-armor encrypted or signed output
[no-armor][86] — assume input data is not ASCII armored
[no-greeting][87] — suppress the opening copyright notice but do not enter batch mode
[no-secmem-warning][88] — suppress warnings if insecure memory is used
[batch][89] — use batch mode
[no-batch][90] — disable batch mode
[local-user][91] — specifies a user id to use for signing
[default-key][92] — specifies a user ID as a default user ID for signatures
[completes-needed][93] — specifies the number of fully-trusted people needed to validate a new key.
[marginals-needed][94] — specifies the number of marginally-trusted people needed to validate a new key.
[load-extension][95] — specifies an extension to load.
[rfc1991][96] — try to be more RFC1991 (PGP 2.x) compliant
[allow-non-selfsigned-uid][97] — allow the import of keys with user IDs which are not self-signed
[cipher-algo][98] — use a specified algorithm as the symmetric cipher
[compress-algo][99] — use a specified compression algorithm
[z][100] — set compression level
[verbose][101] — provide additional information during processing
[no-verbose][102] — resets verbosity to none
[quiet][103] — supress informational output
[textmode][104] — use canonical text mode
[dry-run][105] — do not make changes
[interactive][106] — prompt before overwriting files
[yes][107] — assume ``yes'' to most questions
[no][108] — assume ``no'' to most questions
[always-trust][109] — skip key validation
[skip-verify][110] — skip signature verification
[keyring][111] — add a keyring to the list of keyrings
[secret-keyring][112] — add a secret keyring
[no-default-keyring][113] — do not add the default keyrings to the list of keyrings
[homedir][114] — set the home directory
[charset][115] — set the name of the native character set.
[no-literal][116] — ?
[set-filesize][117] — ?
[with-fingerprint][118] — modifies key listing output
[with-colons][119] — modifies key listing output
[with-key-data][120] — modifies key listing output
[lock-once][121] — locks the databases once
[lock-multiple][122] — locks the databases each time they are used
[passphrase-fd][123] — read the passphrase from a different input stream
[force-mdc][124] — force the use of encryption with appended manipulation code
[force-v3-sigs][125] — force the use of v3 signatures on data
[openpgp][126] — reset all packet, cipher, and digest options to the OpenPGP specification
[utf8-strings][127] — assume that arguments are provided as UTF8 strings
[no-utf8-strings][128] — assume that arguments are not provided as UTF8 strings
[no-options][129] — use no options file
[debug][130] — set debug flags
[debug-all][131] — set all useful debugging flags
[status-fd][132] — write status messages to an alternative output stream
[logger-fd][133] — write log messages to an alternative output stream
[no-comment][134] — do not write comment packets
[comment][135] — set the comment string to use in cleartext signatures
[default-comment][136] — use the standard comment string in cleartext signatures
[no-version][137] — omit the version string in clear text signatures
[emit-version][138] — emit the version string in cleartext signatures
[notation-data][139] — add data to a signature as notation data
[set-policy-url][140] — set the policy URL for signatures
[set-filename][141] — sets the filename stored in encrypted or signed messages
[use-embedded-filename][142] — use the filename embedded in a message for storing its plaintext or verified version
[max-cert-depth][143] — set the maximum depth of a certification chain
[digest-algo][144] — set the message digest algorithm
[s2k-cipher-algo][145] — use a specified algorithm as the symmetric cipher for encrypting private keys
[s2k-digest-algo][146] — set the message digest algorithm for mangling passphrases protecting private keys
[s2k-mode][147] — sets how passphrases are mangled
[disable-cipher-algo][148] — prevents a symmetric cipher from being used
[disable-pubkey-algo][149] — prevents a public key cipher from being used
[throw-keyid][150] — do not put key IDs into encrypted packets
[not-dash-escaped][151] — changes the format of cleartext signatures
[escape-from-lines][152] — modifies messages beginning with ``From'' when cleartext signing

* * *

| ----- |
|   |   | [Next][3] | 
|   |   | Getting Started | 

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