This service exists only to help transfer keys between PGP users. It does NOT attempt to guarantee that a key is a valid key; use the signatures on a key for that kind of security.
Each keyserver processes requests in the form of mail messages. The commands for the server are entered on the Subject: line. Note that they should NOT be included in the body of the message.
To: pgp-public-keys@keys.pgp.net
From: johndoe@some.where.ac.uk
Subject: help
Sending your key to ONE server is enough. After it processes your
key, it will forward your ADD request to other servers automagically.
For example, to add your key to the keyserver, or to update your key if it is already there, send a message similar to the following to any server:
To: pgp-public-keys@keys.pgp.net From: johndoe@some.site.edu Subject: add -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6COMPROMISED KEYS: Create a Key Revocation Certificate (read the PGP docs on how to do that) and mail your key to the server once again, with the ADD command.-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Valid commands are:
Command Result
HELP Returns this message HELP country Localized help text (DE, EN, ES, FI, FR, HR, NO) ADD Add PGP public key from the body of your message INDEX [1] List all PGP keys the server knows about (-kv) INDEX userid List all PGP keys containing userid (-kv) VERBOSE INDEX [1] List all PGP keys, verbose format (-kvv) VERBOSE INDEX userid Verbose list of all keys containing userid (-kvv) GET [1] Get the whole public key ring (split) GET userid Get just that one key (-kxa) MGET regexp [2,3] Get all keys which match /regexp/ regexp must be at least two characters long LAST days [3] Get the keys updated in the last `days' days
NOTE: PGP is extremely slow when operating on large keyrings. Adding the full ring of the keyserver to your own ring will take several *DAYS* to complete.
If you *REALLY* need the whole index file or key ring, *PLEASE* ftp it from a key server such as `ftp://ftp.pgp.net/pub/pgp/keys/' or one of the national servers.
MGET michael Gets all keys which have "michael" in them
MGET iastate All keys which contain "iastate"
MGET E8F605A5|5F3E38F5 Those two keyid's
One word about regexps: These are not the same as the wildcards Unix
shells and MSDOS uses. a * isn't ``match anything'' it means ``match
zero or more of the previous character'' like:
a.* matches anything beginning with an a
ab*c matches ac, abc, abbc, etc.
Just try not to use ``MGET .*'' -- use ``GET'' instead.