GPG question:where on the system are my key-pairs?

[Marc Schwartz]

On Wed, 2003-10-29 at 08:07, Elton Woo wrote:
> On October 28, 2003 06:06 pm, Marc Schwartz , <Marc Schwartz 
> <MSchwartz at MedAnalytics.com>> wrote:
> > There is a pretty good tutorial and FAQ at:
> >
> > http://www.gnupg.org/(en)/documentation/index.html
> >
> > and a good privacy guide, which reviews many of the basic concepts, at:
> >
> > http://www.gnupg.org/gph/en/manual.html
> 
> Thank you. For the moment, I just need guidance in configuring it and
> creating my keys. I did create my public key, but I hadn't completed
> the tutorial (*here*:http://home.earthlink.net/~cortana/gpghowto.html),
> so I couldn't determine whether I had created my private key.
> 
> I'll read the tutorial link that you provided.
> 
> 
> Elton ;-)

Elton,

As I believe someone else had raised, if you generated the public key,
you also generated the private key. The tutorial you link has the
following as the first step:

"Once you have GnuPG installed, the first thing to do is generate a
keypair."

The 'keypairs' must be generated at the same time, since the whole basis
for the system is the mathematical and computational complexity of
deriving one key from the other. With the possible exception of our
friends at Ft. Meade, the ability to do this with a sufficient key size
is beyond the capabilities of any known entity (though if you have
reason to worry about them....  ;-).

To understand the concepts behind public key (PK) crypto is critical,
which is why I referenced the other sources. Reviewing the link that you
provided, it is largely a pure HOWTO. It unfortunately does not explain
well enough, the conceptual basis for PK crypto. With that understanding
in place, your ability to effectively use GnuPG will be greatly
enhanced.

HTH,

Marc