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I make a key with gpg2.

I --edit-key

Only the secret keys show. Is it supposed to be like that?

Anyway, I select the only uid and delete the signature (delsig).

Save & exit.

I do anything.

"Unusable secret key"

Fair enough, I did something unreasonable.

--edit-key

check

check gives no output. Is it supposed to be like that?

sign

I can't sign my own key, unusable secret key.

Surely I ought to be able to use and sign my own key, regardless of whether I signed it? What am I missing? I'm working with the only key on the keyring.

650aa6a2
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  • It only makes sense to edit a key that you have the secret key for. Otherwise, you could edit other people's keys to say that they belong to you, or to somebody else. I don't think signing your own key makes much sense either -- you are already proving you have the secret key by making ciphertext that can be decrypted by the public key. Once you can do that, you don't prove anything more by signing the public key. (I'm not sure, but it's possible that public keys have an implicit signature from the private key anyway.) – Dave M. Sep 24 '17 at 20:16
  • I have the secret key for this key. I made the key in step 1. – 650aa6a2 Sep 24 '17 at 20:23
  • Oh I should clarify, then-- why can't I sign my own user id? Or, why can't I do anything without a signature on a user id? – 650aa6a2 Sep 24 '17 at 20:23
  • My understanding is that signing your own key/uid is good practice and done by default in gpg. – 650aa6a2 Sep 24 '17 at 20:32

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