&apt-email;
&apt-product;
<!-- The last update date -->
- <date>2016-07-07T00:00:00Z</date>
+ <date>2016-11-25T00:00:00Z</date>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<para>
Note that if usage of <command>apt-key</command> is desired the additional
installation of the GNU Privacy Guard suite (packaged in
- <package>gnupg</package>) is required. For this reason alone the programatic
+ <package>gnupg</package>) is required. For this reason alone the programmatic
usage (especially in package maintainerscripts!) is strongly discouraged.
Further more the output format of all commands is undefined and can and does
change whenever the underlying commands change. <command>apt-key</command> will
</para>
</refsect1>
+<refsect1><title>Supported keyring files</title>
+<para>apt-key supports only the binary OpenPGP format (also known as "GPG key
+ public ring") in files with the "<literal>gpg</literal>" extension, not
+ the keybox database format introduced in newer &gpg; versions as default
+ for keyring files. Binary keyring files intended to be used with any apt
+ version should therefore always be created with <command>gpg --export</command>.
+</para>
+<para>Alternatively, if all systems which should be using the created keyring
+ have at least apt version >= 1.4 installed, you can use the ASCII armored
+ format with the "<literal>asc</literal>" extension instead which can be
+ created with <command>gpg --armor --export</command>.
+</para>
+</refsect1>
+
<refsect1><title>Commands</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term><option>add</option> <option>&synopsis-param-filename;</option></term>
otherwise the &apt-secure; infrastructure is completely undermined.
</para>
<para>
- Instead of using this command a keyring can be placed directly in the
- <filename>/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/</filename> directory with a descriptive name
- (same rules for filename apply as for &apt-conf; files) and "<literal>gpg</literal>"
- as file extension.
+ <emphasis>Note</emphasis>: Instead of using this command a keyring
+ should be placed directly in the <filename>/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/</filename>
+ directory with a descriptive name and either "<literal>gpg</literal>" or
+ "<literal>asc</literal>" as file extension.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<para>
Note that a distribution does not need to and in fact should not use
this command any longer and instead ship keyring files in the
- <filename>/etc/apt/trusted.gpg</filename> directory directly as this
+ <filename>/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/</filename> directory directly as this
avoids a dependency on <package>gnupg</package> and it is easier to manage
keys by simply adding and removing files for maintainers and users alike.
</para>