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Today I started learning how to work with GPG keys. I successfully generated a pair for me, and imported some other keys, encrypted some files and successfully decrypted them.

I want to send my GPG key to the keyserver, but I cannot seem to be able to do so.

I ran:

$ gpg2 --send-keys 61955ADD7D75EE596DD08557105C63FAC0CD6192 
gpg: sending key 105C63FAC0CD6192 to hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net

However, when trying to import it on another machine (gpg --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys 105C63FAC0CD6192) it says it's not found, and indeed it is not listed here: http://pool.sks-keyservers.net/pks/lookup?search=105C63FAC0CD6192&fingerprint=on&op=index

How long does it usually take to upload the key and share it among the key servers?

What am I doing wrong?

Ionică Bizău
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    Answer-comment from @Earnie : *It seems https://pool.sks-keyservers.net isn't working properly as of 27-AUG-2018 and instead displays a page that relates to openSUSE download. Someone else may add this as a comment and this "Answer" can be deleted.* – peterh Aug 27 '18 at 13:35

1 Answers1

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The PGP keyserver pool has dozens (129 at the moment) of keyservers in it. When you make a request to it, you may get a different server than the previous request. Over time, the keyservers all exchange their new keys & signatures with one another, so it will eventually propagate to all of them. It's hard to say what "eventually" is, but my experience is a few hours.

If you need an operation to complete quickly, pick a single keyserver by name and use it for those operations.

David
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  • Even after few weeks, If I search for the same input, it doesn't work on the web, but in the terminal it does work (and the key was published successfully). Any explanation? – Ionică Bizău Mar 26 '18 at 18:14
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    Web search failure looks to be based on the `0x` missing from the search. A few, very few, servers are able to recognize that the search string is a fingerprint, not a name, and search for it that way. Most, however, require that when searching by fingerprint you use the `0x` prefix to show that it is a hex number. On the web I found a key, presumably yours, using `0x105C63FAC0CD6192` at [https://pgp.mit.edu](https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?search=0x105C63FAC0CD6192&op=index) –  Aug 03 '18 at 22:46
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    In my case I had to use the *verbose* index instead of the *regular* index for searching. (And don't forget the 0x prefix that mentioned by user135823) – gijswijs Jan 22 '20 at 03:30