Subcommand options

--amount=AMOUNT

The required amount of trust

120 indicates full authentication; values less than 120 indicate partial authentication. When `--certification-network` is passed, this defaults to 1200, i.e., this command tries to find 10 paths.

--cert=FINGERPRINT|KEYID

Use certificates with the specified fingerprint or key ID

--certification-network

Treats the network as a certification network

Normally, the authentication machinery treats the Web of Trust network as an authentication network where a certification only means that the binding is correct, not that the target should be treated as a trusted introducer. In a certification network, the targets of certifications are treated as trusted introducers with infinite depth, and any regular expressions are ignored. Note: The trust amount remains unchanged. This is how most so-called PGP path-finding algorithms work.

--email=EMAIL

Authenticate the specified email address

This checks whether it is possible to authenticate a user ID with the specified email address. The user IDs do not need to be self signed. To authenticate a user ID containing just the specified email address, use `--userid <EMAIL>`.

--gossip

Treats all certificates as unreliable trust roots

This option is useful for figuring out what others think about a certificate (i.e., gossip or hearsay). In other words, this finds arbitrary paths to a particular certificate.

Gossip is useful in helping to identify alternative ways to authenticate a certificate. For instance, imagine Ed wants to authenticate Laura's certificate, but asking her directly is inconvenient. Ed discovers that Micah has certified Laura's certificate, but Ed hasn't yet authenticated Micah's certificate. If Ed is willing to rely on Micah as a trusted introducer, and authenticating Micah's certificate is easier than authenticating Laura's certificate, then Ed has learned about an easier way to authenticate Laura's certificate.

Stable since 1.1.0.

--show-paths

Show why a binding is authenticated

By default, only a user ID and certificate binding's degree of authentication (a value between 0 and 120) is shown. This changes the output to also show how that value was computed by showing the paths from the trust roots to the bindings.

--unusable

Show bindings that are unusable

Normally, unusable certificates and bindings are not shown. This option considers bindings, even if they are not unusable, because they (or the certificates) are not valid according to the policy, are revoked, or are not live.

This option only makes sense with `--gossip`, because unusable bindings are still considered unauthenticated.

Stable since 1.1.0.

--userid=USERID

Authenticate the specified user ID

The specified user ID does not need to be self signed.

Global options

See sq(1) for a description of the global options.