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I copied my GPG data from another computer by just copying ~/.gnupg/* to an external drive.
I can't quite figure out where this leaves me. I'd read that this works, but can't figure out how to get it set up again. GPG won't list any keys.
I didn't do --export and --import because I figured this saved me a couple steps (and, again, had read that it would work).
user517952
Posted 2015-11-05T18:10:03.227
Reputation: 11
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GnuPG does not scan all your drives and folders for its home directory, but looks for it as dedicated places, by default only ~/.gnupg (in other words, in your home directory).
If you want to use it on another computer, use the --homedir option, for example gpg --homedir=/media/usb/.gnupg --list-keys. If you copied your GnuPG home directory back on another computer, you might have to take ownership again using chown $USER:$USER ~/.gnupg, as even when using the same user name, the underlying numeric IDs might have changed. Also, if you only copied the GnuPG home directory's contents (~/.gnupg/* does that), you'll have to apply proper permissions (chmod 700 ~/.gnupg) to the enclosing directory, GnuPG is rather picky on others being able to read your files.
Jens Erat
Posted 2015-11-05T18:10:03.227
Reputation: 14 141
Did all of that. I took a screenshot of my actions and the apparent results. http://i.imgur.com/nxkQRj5.png
– user517952 – 2015-11-05T21:44:09.3571Both your public and secret keyring are empty (look at the file size). Are they also empty on your thumb drive? – Jens Erat – 2015-11-05T21:56:39.937
Yes, yes they are.
It's lost. – user517952 – 2015-11-06T00:53:07.153