Backing up and restoring Keychain file

Question

How can I backup the Keychain file and also load it on another mac?
Thanks.

Answer 1

We are talking about retrieving information from the copied keychain when access to the original machine is not possible
You didn't say that in your previous posts (or I misunderstood what you did say). For this new situation, it seems trivial to create a new admin user account, using the same username/password combo as on the old machine's account, log into it, and replace the new login.keychain with the saved one, log out and back in. and everything in the keychain should be available.
It would seem that pen and paper might be the most reliable way after all of retaining sensitive passwords
I have a simple AppleScript which I use to generate a list containing the name, account username, and password for each key in my login.keychain. I use this list as a backup for all generic and webpage keys. You'll have to edit the resulting text file "Passwords" (saved to the desktop) to eliminate the garbage characters that are contained within. No need for pen and paper. Paste the below into Script Editor, run it, and click appropriately on the dialog boxes that pop up. It'll take awhile during the first pass, but subsequent runs only pop up the dialog boxes on new item. HTH
<script>
set osXKeychainScriptingPath to ¬
(path to scripting additions from system domain as Unicode text) ¬
& "Keychain Scripting.app:" -- one line
set theSecuridPIN to {}
tell application "Keychain Scripting" to launch
tell application "Keychain Access" to launch
using terms from application "Keychain Scripting"
tell application osXKeychainScriptingPath
set KeyList to every Internet key of current keychain
repeat with aKey in KeyList
set theSecuridPIN to theSecuridPIN & (name of aKey) & tab ¬
& (account of aKey) & tab & (password of aKey) & return
end repeat
end tell
end using terms from
tell application "Keychain Scripting" to quit
tell application "Keychain Access" to quit
tell application "Finder"
open for access file (((path to desktop folder) as text) & "Passwords") with write permission
set theFile to result
write theSecuridPIN to theFile
close access theFile
end tell
<script>
G4 450 MP Gigabit   Mac OS X (10.4.9)