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RPMKEYS(8) System Manager's Manual RPMKEYS(8)

NAME

rpmkeys - RPM Keyring

SYNOPSIS

rpmkeys {-K|--checksig} [options] PACKAGE_FILE ...

rpmkeys {-d|--delete|-e|--erase} [options] FINGERPRINT ...

rpmkeys {-x|--export} [options] [FINGERPRINT ...]

rpmkeys {-i|--import} [options] PUBKEY ...

rpmkeys {-l|--list} [options] [FINGERPRINT ...]

rpmkeys --rebuild [options] [rebuild-options]

DESCRIPTION

rpmkeys is used for manipulating the rpm keyring and verifying package digital signatures with the contained keys.

For all available operations, see OPERATIONS.

OPERATIONS

-K, --checksig

Verify the digests and signatures contained in PACKAGE_FILE to ensure the integrity and origin of the package. See VERIFICATION POLICY for details of operation.

-d, --delete, -e, --erase

Erase the key(s) designated by FINGERPRINT. The --delete and -d options are deprecated.

-x, --export

Output the key(s) designated by FINGERPRINT using an ASCII-armor encoding. If FINGERPRINT is not specified, output all keys.

--import

Import ASCII-armored public keys. Digital signatures cannot be verified without the corresponding public key (aka certificate).

-l, --list

List currently imported public key(s) (aka certificates) by their fingerprint and user ID. If no fingerprints are specified, list all keys.

--rebuild

Recreate the public key storage. Update to the latest format and drop unreadable keys.

ARGUMENTS

FINGERPRINT

The handle used for all operations on the keys.
PACKAGE_FILE
An rpm package file or a manifest.
PUBKEY
An ASCII-armored OpenPGP public key (aka certificate).

OPTIONS

See rpm-common(8) for the options common to all rpm executables.

REBUILD OPTIONS

--from <fs|openpgp|rpmdb>

Use the keys from the specified backend to rebuild the currently configured keystore backend. This can be used to convert from one key storage to another.

VERIFICATION POLICY

To deal with three generations of package formats and as many decades of cryptographic algorithms and differing system policies, the RPM package verification is a complicated system with many moving parts.

RPM packages contain multiple individual verifiables that cover different parts of the package: header, payload or both. There are two classes of verifiables: digests and signatures. Each verifiable may use a different cryptographic algorithm. A class-level verification result (pass or fail) is computed based on the results from its individual verifiables. When a class or verifiable passes, it is also said to verify.

For a class to verify, both the header and payload must be covered by a passing verifiable. Non-trusted signatures (such as expired, or ones using legacy algorithms) are ignored on the individual level, so they only cause a class-level failure if no passing signature is present.

An outright failure of an individual verifiable typically fails the whole class as well, but some verifiables have alternatives where either of the verifiables passing is sufficient and nullifies the other one failing.

The final verification result is computed based on the class results, and the package verification mode set with the %_pkgverify_level macro (see rpm-config(5) for details).

Which of the individual verifiables are used depends on the system cryptography libraries and their policies, RPM configuration and the package format version.

OUTPUT

--checksig

<_PACKAGE_FILE_>: [<digests|DIGESTS>] [<signatures|SIGNATURES>] <OK|NOT OK>

The output is on the level of digest and signature class, which often includes results from multiple individual verifiables. Classes that verify are printed in lowercase, failing classes in UPPERCASE. The final package level conclusion per current VERIFICATION POLICY is printed out as OK or NOT OK.

--list

<fingerprint> <name> <userid> public key

TROUBLESHOOTING

Use --checksig --verbose to troubleshoot verification on per-veriable level.

See VERIFICATION POLICY for background on interpreting the output. The per-class results and the final conclusion are not printed at all in this mode. One should not attempt to calculate the final result from this output.

<_PACKAGE_FILE_>:


    <range> <description> [ALT] <class>: <result>


    ...

The output is on the level of individual verifiables.

Range describes the area which the verifiable covers. Possible values are:

  • Header: The main header of the package
  • Payload: The payload of the package
  • Legacy: The main header and the payload of the package

Description includes general information about this verifiable. For digests, this is just the hash algorithm name, such as SHA256. Signatures are prefixed with OpenPGP. For discovered signatures, the rest of the description is one of the following, depending on whether the public key is available or not:

<version> <sign_algo>/<hash_algo>, key fingerprint <fprint>
<version> <sign_algo>/<hash_algo>, key ID <id>

Note that the version is OpenPGP version, not to be confused with similar looking RPM signature versions. For non-present signatures such details are not available, but for RPM V3 and V4 signatures the "algorithm family" (RSA or DSA) is emitted. RPM V6 signatures may use arbitrary OpenPGP algorithms.

ALT indicates the verifiable is an optional alternative to another verifiable.

Class is one of digest or signature.

Result is one of the following:

  • OK: Verification passed.
  • NOKEY: The public key is not available (signatures only).
  • NOTTRUSTED: Verifiable is not trusted, eg. expired key or a legacy algorithm (signatures only). Does not necessarily indicate class failure if there are other usable signatures present.
  • NOTFOUND: Verifiable was not found. Only emitted on class-level failure, and indicates which individual verifiables RPM looked for.
  • BAD: Verification failed.

CONFIGURATION

There are several configurables affecting the behavior of this verification, see rpm-config(5) for details:

  • %_keyring
  • %_keyringpath
  • %_pkgverify_flags
  • %_pkgverify_level

EXIT STATUS

On success, 0 is returned. In particular, for verification it means all arguments were verified successfully as per current VERIFICATION POLICY.

A non-zero code indicates the number of failures encountered, but this is capped to 254 to avoid overflowing the return. 255 is returned on output error, this special code is used by xargs(1) to stop processing immediately.

EXAMPLES

rpmkeys --export 771b18d3d7baa28734333c424344591e1964c5fc | sq inspect

Export key 771b18d3d7baa28734333c424344591e1964c5fc for inspecting with sequoia-sq.

rpmkeys --erase 771b18d3d7baa28734333c424344591e1964c5fc

Erase key 771b18d3d7baa28734333c424344591e1964c5fc from the keyring.

rpmkeys -K hello-2.0-1.x86_64.rpm

Verify hello-2.0-1.x86_64.rpm package file.

SEE ALSO

popt(3), rpm(8), rpm-common(8), rpm-config(5), rpmsign(1)

rpmkeys --help - as rpm(8) supports customizing the options via popt aliases it's impossible to guarantee that what's described in the manual matches what's available.

http://www.rpm.org/

2026-08-20 RPM 6.1.0