Ubuntu Manpage: sq verify - Verify signed messages or detached signatures

NAME

       sq verify - Verify signed messages or detached signatures

SYNOPSIS

       sq verify [OPTIONS] FILE

DESCRIPTION

Verify signed messages or detached signatures.

When verifying signed messages, the message is written to stdout or the file given to
`--output`.

When a detached message is verified, no output is produced. Detached signatures are often
used to sign software packages.

Verification is only successful if there is no bad signature, and the number of
successfully verified signatures reaches the threshold configured with the `--signatures`
parameter. If the verification fails, the program terminates with an exit status
indicating failure. In addition to that, the last 25 MiB of the message are withheld,
i.e. if the message is smaller than 25 MiB, no output is produced, and if it is larger,
then the output will be truncated.

A signature is considered to have been authenticated if the signer can be authenticated.
If the signer is provided via `--signer-file`, then the signer is considered
authenticated. Otherwise, the signer is looked up and authenticated using the Web of
Trust. If at least one User ID can be fully authenticated, then the signature is
considered to have been authenticated. If the signature includes a Signer User ID
subpacket, then only that User ID is considered. Note: the User ID need not be self
signed.

The converse operation is `sq sign`.

If you are looking for a standalone program to verify detached signatures, consider using
sequoia-sqv.

`sq verify` respects the reference time set by the top-level `--time` argument. When set,
it verifies the message as of the reference time instead of the current time.

OPTIONS

   Subcommand options
       --detached=SIG
              Verify a detached signature

       -n, --signatures=N
              Set the threshold of valid signatures to N. If this threshold is not  reached,  the
              message will not be considered verified.

       -o, --output=FILE
              Write to FILE or stdout if omitted

       --signer-cert=FINGERPRINT|KEYID
              Verify signatures using the specified certificate.  This reads the certificate from
              the certificate store, and considers it to be authenticated.  When this  option  is
              not  provided,  the  certificate  is  still  read from the certificate store, if it
              exists, but it is not considered authenticated.

       --signer-file=CERT_FILE
              Verify signatures using the certificate in CERT_FILE

        FILE  Read from FILE or stdin if omitted

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

EXAMPLES

       Verify a signed message

              sq verify signed-message.pgp

       Verify a detached message

              sq verify --detached message.sig message.txt

       Verify a message as of June 9, 2011 at midnight UTC:

              sq verify --time 20130721 msg.pgp

VERSION