sq-sign - Man Page
Signs messages or data files
Synopsis
sq sign [Options] FILE
Description
Signs messages or data files.
Creates signed messages or detached signatures. Detached signatures are often used to sign software packages.
The converse operation is `sq verify`.
`sq sign` respects the reference time set by the top-level `--time` argument. When set, it uses the specified time instead of the current time, when determining what keys are valid, and it sets the signature's creation time to the reference time instead of the current time.
Options
Subcommand options
- -B, --binary
Emits binary data
- -a, --append
Appends a signature to existing signature
- --cleartext-signature
Creates a cleartext signature
- --detached
Creates a detached signature
- --merge=SIGNED-MESSAGE
Merges signatures from the input and SIGNED-MESSAGE
- -n, --notarize
Signs a message and all existing signatures
- --notation NAME VALUE
Adds a notation to the certification. A user-defined notation's name must be of the form `name@a.domain.you.control.org`. If the notation's name starts with a `!`, then the notation is marked as being critical. If a consumer of a signature doesn't understand a critical notation, then it will ignore the signature. The notation is marked as being human readable.
- -o, --output=FILE
Writes to FILE or stdout if omitted
- --private-key-store=KEY_STORE
Provides parameters for private key store
- --signer-file=KEY_FILE
Signs the message using the key in KEY_FILE
- FILE
Reads from FILE or stdin if omitted
Global options
- --cert-store=PATH
Specifies the location of the certificate store. By default, sq uses the OpenPGP certificate directory at `$HOME/.local/share/pgp.cert.d`, and creates it if it does not exist.
- -f, --force
Overwrites existing files
- -h, --help
Print help (see a summary with '-h')
- --keyring=PATH
Specifies the location of a keyring to use. Keyrings are used in addition to any certificate store. The content of the keyring is not imported into the certificate store. When a certificate is looked up, it is looked up in all keyrings and any certificate store, and the results are merged together.
- --known-notation=NOTATION
Adds NOTATION to the list of known notations. This is used when validating signatures. Signatures that have unknown notations with the critical bit set are considered invalid.
- --no-cert-store
Disables the use of a certificate store. Normally sq uses the user's standard cert-d, which is located in `$HOME/.local/share/pgp.cert.d`.
- --output-format=FORMAT
Produces output in FORMAT, if possible
- --output-version=VERSION
Produces output variant Version, such as 0.0.0. The default is the newest version. The output version is separate from the version of the sq program. To see the current supported versions, use output-versions subcommand.
- --pep-cert-store=PATH
Specifies the location of a pEp certificate store. sq does not use a pEp certificate store by default; it must be explicitly enabled using this argument or the corresponding environment variable, PEP_CERT_STORE. The pEp Engine's default certificate store is at `$HOME/.pEp/keys.db`.
- --time=TIME
Sets the reference time as an ISO 8601 formatted timestamp. Normally, commands use the current time as the reference time. This argument allows the user to use a difference reference time. For instance, when creating a key using `sq key generate`, the creation time is normally set to the current time, but can be overridden using this option. Similarly, when verifying a message, the message is verified with respect to the current time. This option allows the user to use a different time.
TIME is interpreted as an ISO 8601 timestamp. To set the certification time to July 21, 2013 at midnight UTC, you can do:
$ sq --time 20130721 verify msg.pgp
To include a time, say 5:50 AM, add a T, the time and optionally the timezone (the default timezone is UTC):
$ sq --time 20130721T0550+0200 verify msg.pgp
- --trust-root=FINGERPRINT|KEYID
Considers the specified certificate to be a trust root. Trust roots are used by trust models, e.g., the Web of Trust, to authenticate certificates and User IDs.
- -v, --verbose
Be more verbose.
Examples
Create a signed message
sq sign --signer-file juliet.pgp message.txt
Create a detached signature
sq sign --detached --signer-file juliet.pgp message.txt
Create a signature with the specified creation time
sq sign --time 20020304 --detached --signer-file juliet.pgp \ message.txt
See Also
For the full documentation see <https://book.sequoia-pgp.org>.
Version
0.33.0 (sequoia-openpgp 1.17.0)