Secure apt

Ian:

Thanks.  When I click on the first hyperlink for E084DAB9 

I get a file that looks like this:
Public Key Server -- Get ``0x51716619e084dab9 ''
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: SKS 1.0.10



-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

with a long string of characters in between 
the BEGIN and END lines.  Can you confirm
which part of this I need to include in my 
text file?

Thanks.





----- Original Message -----
From: Ian Gow <iandgow at gmail.com>
To: Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org>
Cc: Scott Raynaud <scott.raynaud at yahoo.com>; "r-sig-debian at r-project.org" <r-sig-debian at r-project.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2012 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: [R-sig-Debian] Secure apt

Scott:

I have the same issue with the firewall.

My experience is that, after following Dirk's directions on the CRAN page for Debian/Ubuntu (http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/), sometimes the web search gets returned with :11371 embedded in the URL and that gets blocked too. My low-tech solution is as follows. 

After I go to http://keyserver.ubuntu.com and do a search, I get:

http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?search=rutter%2C+michael&op=vindex

So I edit out the 11371 to get

http://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?search=rutter%2C+michael&op=vindex

and from that I get a webpage looking like the text below (with hyperlinks for each "E084DAB9"). I can then click the top link, save the result as key.txt and then follow the directions on the CRAN Debian/Ubuntu page above.

(My previous low-low-tech solution was to pull up the page on my iPhone--with WiFi off--and email the text to myself. But the merely low-tech approach is less painful.)

-Ian

Result for http://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?search=rutter%2C+michael&op=vindex:

Search results for 'rutter michael'

Type bits/keyID    cr. time   exp time   key expir

pub  2048R/E084DAB9 2010-10-19            

uid Michael Rutter <marutter at gmail.com>
sig  sig3  E084DAB9 2010-10-19 __________ 2015-10-18 [selfsig]

sub  2048R/1CFF3E8F 2010-10-19            
sig sbind  E084DAB9 2010-10-19 __________ 2015-10-18 []



On Mar 18, 2012, at 9:39 AM, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:

On 18 March 2012 at 06:25, Scott Raynaud wrote:
| I am trying to add Michael Rutter's ppa to my
| repository.  I cannot do this from the command
| line.  I think I may be behind a firewall so copying
| the key to a text file is my best option.  When I
| search for the key at 
| 
| http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/
| 
| the search fails.  Tried typing and 
| cutting and pasting E084DAB9 into 
| the search box without success.  How 
| can I get the key?

By reading up on the underlying 'web of trust' initially built around PGP,
and later GPG which is used here too.  The idiomatic approach is to do a 
'gpg --search ....' where you also need to specify a server:

  edd at max:~$ gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --search-key E084DAB9 
  gpg: searching for "E084DAB9" from hkp server pgp.mit.edu
  (1)     Michael Rutter <marutter at gmail.com>
            2048 bit RSA key E084DAB9, created: 2010-10-19
  Keys 1-1 of 1 for "E084DAB9".  Enter number(s), N)ext, or Q)uit > n
  Enter number(s), N)ext, or Q)uit > 1
  gpg: requesting key E084DAB9 from hkp server pgp.mit.edu
  gpg: key E084DAB9: public key "Michael Rutter <marutter at gmail.com>" imported
  gpg: Total number processed: 1
  gpg:               imported: 1  (RSA: 1)
  edd at max:~$ 


Dirk

-- 
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too
dark to read." -- Groucho Marx