Format of keyserver colon listings ================================== David Shaw The machine readable response begins with an optional information line: info:: = this is the version of this protocol. Currently, this is the number 1. = 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:::::: = 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. = the algorithm number from RFC-2440. (i.e. 1==RSA, 17==DSA, etc). = the key length (i.e. 1024, 2048, 4096, etc.) = creation date of the key in standard RFC-2440 form (i.e. number of seconds since 1/1/1970 UTC time) = expiration date of the key in standard RFC-2440 form (i.e. number of seconds since 1/1/1970 UTC time) = 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:::: == 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 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 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.