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gpg — GNU Privacy Guard, an OpenPGP encryption and signing tool. See also: `sq`. More information: <https:

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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Problem

How to use the gpg command: GNU Privacy Guard, an OpenPGP encryption and signing tool. See also: sq. More information: <https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg/Invoking-GPG.html>.

Solution

gpg — GNU Privacy Guard, an OpenPGP encryption and signing tool. See also: sq. More information: <https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg/Invoking-GPG.html>.

Create a GPG public and private key interactively:

gpg {{[--full-gen-key|--full-generate-key]}}

List all keys from the public keyring:

gpg {{[-k|--list-keys]}}

Sign doc.txt without encryption (writes output to doc.txt.asc):

gpg --clearsign {{doc.txt}}

Encrypt and sign doc.txt for alice@example.com and bob@example.com (output to doc.txt.gpg):

gpg {{[-es|--encrypt --sign]}} {{[-r|--recipient]}} {{alice@example.com}} {{[-r|--recipient]}} {{bob@example.com}} {{doc.txt}}

Encrypt doc.txt with only a passphrase (output to doc.txt.gpg):

gpg {{[-c|--symmetric]}} {{doc.txt}}

Decrypt doc.txt.gpg (output to stdout):

gpg {{[-d|--decrypt]}} {{doc.txt.gpg}}

Import a public key:

gpg --import {{public.gpg}}

Export the public/private key for alice@example.com (output to stdout):

gpg {{--export|--export-secret-keys}} {{[-a|--armor]}} {{alice@example.com}}

Code Snippets

Create a GPG public and private key interactively

gpg {{[--full-gen-key|--full-generate-key]}}

List all keys from the public keyring

gpg {{[-k|--list-keys]}}

Sign `doc.txt` without encryption (writes output to `doc.txt.asc`)

gpg --clearsign {{doc.txt}}

Encrypt and sign `doc.txt` for `alice@example.com` and `bob@example.com` (output to `doc.txt.gpg`)

gpg {{[-es|--encrypt --sign]}} {{[-r|--recipient]}} {{alice@example.com}} {{[-r|--recipient]}} {{bob@example.com}} {{doc.txt}}

Encrypt `doc.txt` with only a passphrase (output to `doc.txt.gpg`)

gpg {{[-c|--symmetric]}} {{doc.txt}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/gpg

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