Key server software written by Michael Graff <explorer@iastate.edu>
- English:
- For an English version of this text please send a mail with a subject line
of "HELP" to
pgp-public-keys@keys.pgp.net,
or access the URL
http://www.pgp.net/pgpnet/email-help-en.html
- Norwegian:
- For aa faa dette dokumentet paa norsk, send "HELP NO" til
pgp-public-keys@keys.no.pgp.net
- German:
- Fuer eine deutschsprachige Fassung dieses Textes senden Sie
eine Mail mit dem Subject "HELP DE" an die folgende Adresse
pgp-public-keys@keys.de.pgp.net
- Spanish:
- Para obtener una versisn en castellano de este texto, envme un mail a pgp
pgp-public-keys@keys.es.pgp.net
con el "Subject" HELP ES
- Finnish:
- Saadaksesi taman tekstin suomeksi, laheta osoitteeseen
pgp-public-keys@keys.fi.pgp.net
tyhja viesti, jonka Subject-kentta on "HELP FI".
- Croatian:
- Za hrvatsku verziju ovoga teksta posaljite poruku koja ce u Subject imati "HELP HR" na adresu
pgp-public-keys@keys.hr.pgp.net
PGP Public Email Keyservers
There are PGP public email key servers which allow one to exchange public
keys running using the Internet and UUCP mail systems.
Those capable of accessing the WWW might prefer to use the
WWW interface
and managers of sites which may want to make frequent lookups may care to
copy the full keyring from
the FTP server
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: 2.6
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
COMPROMISED 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.
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
- EXPECT HUGE MAILS
These commands return an enormous amount of information, be
careful! Not all mail systems can handle messages of that
size, in which case these massive messages will bounce back to
the keyserver. They also probably contain more information
than you ever want or need. Here are the current sizes as of
1997/02/28, expect them to grow pretty fast:
- "INDEX" returns one single e-mail of 4MB
- "VERBOSE INDEX" returns one single e-mail of 8MB
- "GET" returns the whole keyring containing more than 55,000
keys, totalling 18MB), as 99 mails of more than 200KB. This
is a lot of files, and a lot of bother to get in the right
order to run through PGP.
Most likely the returned information will be mostly useless to
you, so please use these commands in their "userid" variation,
decreasing the message size and the hassle for your mail
administrator and the keyserver administrator, and will be
increasing the value for you.
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.
- REGULAR EXPRESSIONS IN "MGET"
Here are some examples of MGET commands:
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.
- KEY LIMITATIONS
Some keyservers have a limit on the number of keys they return in
"MGET" or "LAST" queries, in order not to swamp you with too many
keys in case you made a typo.
Users should normally use the email address
``pgp-public-keys@keys.pgp.net'',
or your national servers using one of:
for the email interface, and
``ftp://ftp.pgp.net/pub/pgp/''
for FTP access.