Import gpg secret keys from a backup (without restoring it)

> gpg --export but I can't since I have no running computer with these keys.

Yes you can. You can tell GnuPG to use whatever it is you want - just specify it like it's an "alternate" keyring location.

Start off with gpg --no-default-keyring

That tells GPG "don't look in the normal spot."

Then add:

gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring=/this/is/where/my/amazing/old/file/lives/at

That tells GPG to look somewhere else for the keyring files, which would be your old pubring.kbx

Then try:

gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring=/this/is/where/my/amazing/old/file/lives/at --list-keys

And you should see the keys listed.

And --export should work too:

gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring=/this/is/where/my/amazing/old/file/lives/at --export blah-blah-blah

The whole idea revolves around telling GPG to look elsewhere to export the keys.

Then you can drop all that and do the usual gpg --import.

Thanks for the explanations.

Apparently the --keyring option wants a file, not a directory.

If I run

gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring=/path/.gnupg/pubring.kbx --list-secret-keys

I get nothing. There does not seem to be any equivalent keyring file for private key. However, from "man gpg", I managed to get it work with the --homedir option:

gpg --no-default-keyring --homedir=/path/.gnupg --list-secret-keys

and

gpg --no-default-keyring --homedir=/path/.gnupg --export-secret-keys

At first, I was confused and thought I should put the user home directory after --homedir, but it is the .gnupg directory that is needed. The first sentence of the man page for that option is rather misleading but one can guess from the second sentence.