Installation guide

Appendix B. Getting Started with Gnu Privacy Guard 257
B.4.1. Exporting to a Keyserver
If you are only writing to a few correspondents, you can export your public key and send it
to them personally. If you correspond with many people, however, distribution of your key
can be time consuming. Instead, you can use a keyserver.
Figure B-1. The Home Page of Keyserver.Net
A keyserver is a repository on the Internet which can store and distribute your public key to
anyone who requests it. Many keyservers are available, and most try to remain synchronized
with each other; sending your key to one keyserver is like distributing it to them all. A
correspondent can request your public key from a from a keyserver, import that key to their
keyring, and they are ready for secure correspondence with you.
Tip
Because most keyservers are synchronized, sending your public key to one keyserver is usually as
good as sending it to them all. You can, however, locate different keyservers. One place to begin your
search for keyservers and more information is Keyserver.Net, at http://www.keyserver.net; another
location is Robert’s Crypto & PGP Links: Keyservers, at http://crypto.yashy.com/www/Keyservers/.
You can send your public key from either the shell prompt or from a browser (as in Figure
B-1); of course, you must be online to send or receive keys from a keyserver.
• From the shell prompt, type the following:
gpg --keyserver search.keyserver.net --send-key [e-mail]