gnupg/doc/KEYSERVER

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Format of keyserver colon listings
==================================
David Shaw <dshaw@jabberwocky.com>
The machine readable response begins with an optional information
line:
info:<version>:<count>
<version> = this is the version of this protocol. Currently, this is
the number 1.
<count> = the number of keys returned in this response. Note this is
the number of keys, and not the number of lines returned.
It should match the number of "pub:" lines returned.
If this optional line is not included, or the version information is
not supplied, the version number is assumed to be 1.
The key listings are made up of several lines per key. The first line
is for the primary key:
pub:<fingerprint>:<algo>:<keylen>:<creationdate>:<expirationdate>:<flags>
<fingerprint> = this is either the fingerprint or the keyid of the
key. Either the 16-digit or 8-digit keyids are
acceptable, but obviously the fingerprint is best.
Since it is not possible to calculate the keyid from a
V3 key fingerprint, for V3 keys this should be either
the 16-digit or 8-digit keyid only.
<algo> = the algorithm number from RFC-2440. (i.e. 1==RSA, 17==DSA,
etc).
<keylen> = the key length (i.e. 1024, 2048, 4096, etc.)
<creationdate> = creation date of the key in standard RFC-2440 form
(i.e. number of seconds since 1/1/1970 UTC time)
<expirationdate> = expiration date of the key in standard RFC-2440
form (i.e. number of seconds since 1/1/1970 UTC time)
<flags> = letter codes to indicate details of the key, if any. Flags
may be in any order.
r == revoked
d == disabled
e == expired
Following the "pub" line are one or more "uid" lines to indicate user
IDs on the key:
uid:<escaped uid string>:<creationdate>:<expirationdate>:<flags>
<escaped uid string> == the user ID string, with HTTP %-escaping for
anything that isn't 7-bit safe as well as for
the ":" character. Any other characters may
be escaped, as desired.
creationdate, expirationdate, and flags mean the same here as before.
The information is taken from the self-sig, if any, and applies to the
user ID in question, and not to the key as a whole.
Details:
* All characters except for the <escaped uid string> are
case-insensitive.
* Obviously, on a keyserver without integrated crypto, many of the
items given here are not fully trustworthy until the key is
downloaded and signatures checked. For example, the information
that a key is flagged "r" for revoked should be treated as
untrustworthy information until the key is checked on the client
side.
* Empty fields are allowed. For example, a key with no expiration
date would have the <expirationdate> field empty. Also, a keyserver
that does not track a particular piece of information may leave that
field empty as well. I expect that the creation and expiration
dates for user IDs will be left empty in current keyservers. Colons
for empty fields on the end of each line may be left off, if
desired.