[Gpg4win-users-en] Subkey generation: kleopatra vs. commandline

[Fabian Nick]

Hi all,

I've noticed the following on my linux machine:
When I generate a new keypair via the command line, i.e. by issuing gpg --generate-key, a key pair is created where the public key has a subkey.
If I generate a key pair in kleopatra, choosing the same settings as in the command line, the public key does NOT contain any subkeys.

So three questions:
1) What exactly are subkeys for?
2) Where does that difference come from?
3) How do I create a public key without a subkey from the command line?

Regards,
Fabian

P.S.: I see that this is somewhat not GPG4win related, but maybe someone can help. Actually it might be possible that the same thing happens on Windows?!