Backup all secret and public keys from GnuPG keyring #gpg

backup-all-gpg-keys.md

Backup private & public GnuPG keys

Backup

KEY_ID='i@example.com'

cat <<EOF >"${KEY_ID}...pub+sec.asc" \ 
&&  gpg --output "${KEY_ID}...pub.gpg" \
        --export ${KEY_ID} \
&&  gpg --output - \
        --export-secret-keys \
        --export-options export-backup \
        ${KEY_ID} \
|   cat "${KEY_ID}...pub.gpg" - \
|   gpg --armor \
        --symmetric \
        --cipher-algo aes256 \
>>  "${KEY_ID}...pub+sec.asc"

uid:    ${KEY_ID}
keys:   public + secret
cipher: aes256

EOF

Result

$ ls
i@example.com...pub+sec.asc  i@example.com...pub.gpg

Restore

Restore on different device

gpg --output - --decrypt "i@example.com...pub+sec.asc"  \
|   gpg --import

Restore in different GnuPG home dir on the same device

Execute

gpg --output - --decrypt "i@example.com...pub+sec.asc" \
|   gpg --homedir /path/to/newGpgHome --import

Unload GnuPG Agent in case of gpg: error sending to agent / gpg: error reading '[stdin]' errors:

gpg-connect-agent --homedir /path/to/newGpgHome killagent /bye

Related materials

• Moving Gpg keys privately
• StackExchange answer for question ‘How to export a GPG private key and public key to a file?’

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tags: gpg, gnupg