Apt-get

northumbrian1 — Mon Dec 17, 2012 11:49 am

Author: northumbrian1

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 11:49 am

Very good! I have many of these type of commands, many of whom came via Fosswire or from Linux Format itself in the form of its (now Out-of-print) "A Beginner's Guide To Linux." which I dutifully printed out and sheathed in plastic pages to refer back to when I needed them. Although Ubuntu has changed via its new Desktop (Unity), the basic construct, beneath the surface still exists, that is, its Debian/Ubuntu derivation. I also have quite a few books relating to the administration of Red-Hat type Linux as I have a Laptop with Fuduntu on it which is originally derived from Fedora - which I like, too! Northumrian1

Quick guide to apt-key

Dutch_Master — Sun Nov 04, 2012 2:59 am

Author: Dutch_Master

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 2:59 am

Apt-key is the tool Debian and its derivatives use to manage public keys for its package management tools. This is a quick guide to get you started:

Open a root terminal, or use sudo if your distro is configured to use it, and enter:

Code:

apt-key list

This will list all known keys on your system. A sample to show the general layout:

Code:

pub 4096R/B98321F9 2010-08-07 [expires: 2017-08-05]
uid Squeeze Stable Release Key <debian-release@lists.debian.org>

In it, 4096R indicates key length and encryption of the key (RSA in this case), the number B98321F9 is the ID of the key as it's know to your system, the date indicates when it was created (and expire date speaks for itself, I'd assume ) followed by the name of the key.

Let's assume you have a key, some_key.asc that you'd want to use. Download it to your user's home directory:

Code:

wget http://www.some.domain.org/some_key.asc

Next, you need to import it:

Code:

apt-key add some_key.asc

To see if the key is imported correctly, update the package list:

Code:

apt-get update

If the key was faulty, incomplete or otherwise unusable, apt will report so.

At some point, a specific key needs to be revoked and removed. This can be done with:

Code:

apt-key del <key-UID>
apt-key list

Listing the keys again allows you to check if the key has been removed from your system. You'd need to update the package list again (see above) to let it forget the revoked key permanently.

Apt-key has a number of other options, use the man-page to study those if you require more then the basics explained above:

Code:

man apt-key

Linux Format forums

Apt-get

Quick guide to apt-key