SQ(1)

💖 SQ-PACKET-SPLIT(1) — the split girlie 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the manual page for sq packet split, aka the split subcommand of sq packet. It's a User Command, it lives in section 1 of the manual (that's sq for short, iykyk), and it is lowkey one of the most fun little tools in the whole Sequoia PGP lineup. pull up a chair, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's get into it.

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✨ NAME ✨

sq-packet-split — split a message into packets 💅

like... it takes one message and goes snip snip, one packet at a time. no cap.

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

sq packet split [OPTIONS] FILE

that's the whole vibe check. options first, then the file. periodt.

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so the whole point: split a message into packets.

Splitting a packet sequence into individual packets, then recombining them freely with sq packet join? that is genuinely the most iconic way to experiment with OpenPGP data. like, it's giving science fair but make it cryptography 🔥 you get to actually poke at the packets and see what's inside.

By default, the packets get written to stdout as a sequence of ASCII armored blocks. and here's the cute part: you can edit that file directly — moving packets, adding packets, removing packets, full main character energy — and then use sq packet join to assemble the stream back up. obsessed.

Alternatively, if you pass a --output-prefix, the packets get written into individual files that all start with that prefix, and you can reassemble those with sq packet join. each packet gets its own little home. 🎀

The converse operation is sq packet join. so yeah, they're a duo. besties, fr fr.

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

💜 Subcommand options 💜

• --binary — emit binary data. like, raw bytes, no armor, no frills. just data being its true self.
• --output=FILE — write to FILE, or to stdout if you just... omit it. she's flexible like that 💁‍♀️
• --output-prefix=PREFIX — write packets to individual files starting with the given prefix.

The file names are formed by joining the prefix, the path of the packet in the source object (recall: packets can be nested 👀 yes really, it's packets all the way down), and a human-readable packet type — all glued together with dashes (-).

• FILE — read from FILE, or from stdin if FILE is '-'.

[default: -]

so if you say nothing at all, she reads from stdin. that's the default, bestie. - literally means "the standard input, bestie."

🌈 Global options 🌈

See sq(1) for a description of the global options. (go read the big one, she has all the tea ☕)

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💀 EXAMPLES 💀

okay so first one: split a certificate into individual packets, printed straight to stdout.

sq packet split --output=- juliet.pgp

next: split an inline-signed message into individual packets, written into individual files, with the prefix packet.

sq packet split --output-prefix packet document.pgp

and then — the glow-up — reassemble the message, transforming it into an old-style signed message with a prefix signature. watch her work:

sq packet join --output prefix-signature.pgp --label message \
       packet-2-Signature-Packet packet-1-Literal-Data-Packet

notice how the file names literally came from the prefix + packet path + packet type with dashes? yeah. that's the system. she ate 🔥

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

sq(1), sq-packet(1).

For the full documentation see https://book.sequoia-pgp.org/ — that's the ✨ sacred text ✨, go read it if you want the whole lore.

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👑 VERSION 👑

1.5.0

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and that's the page, bestie!! this whole thing is brought to you by Sequoia PGP, version 1.5.0 — sitting pretty in section 1 of the manual, dated like the little classic she is. mwah 💖 go split something. 🧚✨