Reputation:
I am making this question because I didn't find a clear explanation about the difference between these 3 gpg options:
gpg --sign file # produces file.gpg
gpg --clear-sign file # produces file.asc
gpg --detach-sign file # produces file.sig
file.gpg
and file.sig
seem to be binary files, while file.asc
seems to be a text file. What is the relationship between these 3 files?
Upvotes: 9
Views: 12787
Reputation: 112
Here you go: https://www.gnupg.org/gph/en/manual/x135.html
Basically when signing with --detach-sign
the resulting .sig won't contain the signed file only the signature.
--sign
compresses, signs and outputs the signed text in a binary format.
--clearsign
wraps the text in an ASCII-armored signature
Upvotes: 8