Backup and import a keypair

Preface

We often need to move our keypair to an other system. This guide will show the solution for this problem.

Exporting the keys

• List the local keys and select which one we need.
  gpg --list-keys
• Export the public key to a file. Change the key_id as necessary. In this case public.key is the name of the file.
  gpg -ao public.key --export key_id
  After this, export the private key.
  gpg -ao private.key --export-secret-keys key_id

Importing the keys

• Copy the keys to the other system, and run
  gpg --import public.key
gpg --import private.key

Warning! The private key is qualified as sensitive data. Handle with care!