If it shows something like: 1 key in keyring: 1070462727: --alswrv 0 0 user: debug:a then it did. request_key() system call is meant to recursively search all your keyrings for the key you desire, and, optionally, if it doesn't exist, call out to userspace to create one for you. If request_key() finds or creates a key, it should, optionally, create a link to that key from the destination keyring specified. Therefore, if, after a successful call to request_key() with a desination keyring specified, you see the destination keyring empty, the code didn't work correctly. If you see the found key in the keyring, then it did - which is what the patch is required for. Signed-off-by: David Howells Cc: James Morris Cc: Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds