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I renewed my gpg key pair, but I am still receiving the following error from gpg. 

gpg: WARNING: Your encryption subkey expires soon.
gpg: You may want to change its expiration date too.

How can I renew the subkey?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
43

List your keys.


$ gpg --list-keys
...
-------------------------------
pub   rsa2048 2019-09-07 [SC] [expires: 2020-11-15]
      AF4RGH94ADC84
uid           [ultimate] Jill Doe (CX) <jilldoe@mail.com>
sub   rsa2048 2019-09-07 [E] [expired: 2019-09-09]

pub   rsa2048 2019-12-13 [SC] [expires: 2020-11-15]
      7DAA371777412
uid           [ultimate] Jill Doe <jilldoe@mail.com>
-------------------------------
...

We want to edit key AF4RGH94ADC84. The subkey is the second one in the list that is named ssb


$ gpg --edit-key AF4RGH94ADC84

gpg> list

sec  rsa2048/AF4RGH94ADC84
     created: 2019-09-07  expires: 2020-11-15  usage: SC
     trust: ultimate      validity: ultimate
ssb  rsa2048/56ABDJFDKFN
     created: 2019-09-07  expired: 2019-09-09  usage: E
[ultimate] (1). Jill Doe (CX) <jilldoe@mail.com>

So we want to edit the first subkey (ssb)

ssb  rsa2048/56ABDJFDKFN
     created: 2019-09-07  expired: 2019-09-09  usage: E
[ultimate] (1). Jill Doe (CX) <jilldoe@mail.com>

When you select key (1), you should see the * next to it such as ssb*. Then you can set the expiration and then save.

gpg> key 1

sec  rsa2048/AF4RGH94ADC84
     created: 2019-09-07  expires: 2020-11-15  usage: SC
     trust: ultimate      validity: ultimate
ssb*  rsa2048/56ABDJFDKFN
     created: 2019-09-07  expired: 2019-09-09  usage: E
[ultimate] (1). Jill Doe (CX) <jilldoe@mail.com>

gpg> expire
...

Changing expiration time for a subkey.
Please specify how long the key should be valid.
         0 = key does not expire
      <n>  = key expires in n days
      <n>w = key expires in n weeks
      <n>m = key expires in n months
      <n>y = key expires in n years

Key is valid for? (0) 2y
Key expires at Wed 9 Sep 16:20:33 2021 GMT
Is this correct? (y/N) y

sec  rsa2048/AF4RGH94ADC84
     created: 2019-09-07  expires: 2020-11-15  usage: SC
     trust: ultimate      validity: ultimate
ssb*  rsa2048/56ABDJFDKFN
     created: 2019-09-07  expires: 2021-09-09  usage: E
[ultimate] (1). Jill Doe (CX) <jilldoe@mail.com>
...

gpg> save

Don't forget to save the changes before quitting!

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  • 2
    Thanks for the detailed instruction, it saved my day. Not sure why gpg is designed in such a confusing fashion which forces you to look for the answer everywhere.
    – Jianwu Chen
    Jul 29, 2021 at 8:48
  • 1
    The most confusing part (that brings me back to this answer once a year) is that you have to use expire to renew a key.
    – Yan Foto
    May 10 at 16:12
-1

I solved this by installing and using openPGP. Click on the "expire" button; it won't accept "never expires", but you can set a date in the future.

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