Preliminaries: First, check the old-fashioned help file. The author's thesis has the original distribution's command set.
The following
list is for the most part quoted directly from the thesis.
Commands must appear in the Subject: header
of the email message. Prefix "0x" to the
userid field to search by keyid.
| Command | |
|---|---|
ADD
|
This command adds or updates keys in the
key database. The body of the message must contain a keyring in
ASCII-armor format to be merged into the database. This must include
the PGP headers -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- |
The next three commands search the database for
userid and email a response back containing the matching
keys in ASCII-armored format.
|
|
INDEX userid
|
Equivalent to pgp -kv
|
VERBOSE INDEX userid |
Equivalent to pgp -kvv
|
GET userid
|
Equivalent to pgp -kxa
|
MGET userid
|
Not implemented |
LAST num
|
Disabled
Returns keys added or changed in the last num days. Will be re-enabled later |
STATUS
|
Not fully implemented (or implemented at all) in pks-0.9.2 |
INCREMENTAL
|
Keyserver synchronization (not a user command) |
Userid is usually a login name, an email address, or descriptive text about the key. keyid is an 8-digit hexadecimal number that uniquely identifies a key. Let's look at Marc Horowitz's key:
| userid |
marc@mit.edu
|
| keyid |
1CF27FD5
|
Send a command to the keyserver.