Git Commit Freeze Due to GPG Lock Issues (Solution)

Git_Commit_Freeze_Solution.md

Git Commit Freeze Due to GPG Lock Issues

If you encounter a problem where you cannot commit changes in Git – neither through the terminal nor via the GitHub Desktop application – the issue might be a freeze during the Git commit process. This is often caused by GPG lock issues. Below is a concise and step-by-step guide to resolve this problem.

Solution Steps

1. Check for GPG Lock Messages

Open your terminal and try to perform a GPG operation (like signing a test message). If you see repeated messages like gpg: waiting for lock (held by [process_id]) ..., it indicates a lock issue.

For example:

❯ echo "test" | gpg --clearsign

gpg: waiting for lock (held by 3571) ...
gpg: waiting for lock (held by 3571) ...
gpg: waiting for lock (held by 3571) ...

2. Locate and Remove Stale Lock Files

List Lock Files:

For Linux:

ls -l ~/.gnupg/*.lock

For MacOS (Darwin):

ls -l ~/.gnupg/**/*.lock

This command lists all lockfiles in ~/.gnupg and its subdirectories without manual exploration.

Remove the Identified Stale Lock Files:

For general lock files:

rm ~/.gnupg/[name-of-the-stale-lock-file].lock

For Linux systems, if the above doesn't work, try removing the public keys database lock:

rm -f ~/.gnupg/public-keys.d/pubring.db.lock

3. Restart GPG-Agent

After removing any stale lock files, it's important to reset the state of the GPG agent.

Command to Restart GPG-Agent:

gpgconf --reload gpg-agent

4. Test GPG Operations

To confirm if the issue is with GPG itself, try signing a simple test message:

Run:

echo "test" | gpg --clearsign

5. Retry Committing in Git

With the GPG lock issue resolved, try committing your changes again in Git.

Thank you for the write-up, this issue was hard to debug. What helped me as well was using GIT_TRACE like:

GIT_TRACE=1 git commit -m "Adam"

This helped. Thanks.

Legend

I think I am in love with you.

thank you this just solved the problem after spending almost a day trying to fix it.

Thanks. Unfortunately, there are no lock files in the listed directory but my database is locked anyway. Did anybody else also have this issue? I'm on Fedora 41.

Edit: rm -f ~/.gnupg/public-keys.d/pubring.db.lock worked for me.

Short & concise! Thanks! Exactly what worked.

thanks, this worked.

rm -f ~/.gnupg/public-keys.d/pubring.db.lock

This worked for me as well on Arch Linux! Should be added to the gist.

thx <3

Thanks. Unfortunately, there are no lock files in the listed directory but my database is locked anyway. Did anybody else also have this issue? I'm on Fedora 41.

Edit: rm -f ~/.gnupg/public-keys.d/pubring.db.lock worked for me.

Also on Fedora 41, this command worked. Thanks!

thank you <3

Not sure what shell that's supposed to be on Linux, but I know for a fact that's not functional in fish or bash. Instead, you can use this:

find ~/.gnupg/ -name '*.lock'

Or in fish specifically, this will work as well

ls -l ~/.gnupg/**.lock

thanks!

thank you very much!

For those using zshell, I like to use this function to quickly do this:

function restart-gpg() {
    echo "🔍 Checking for GPG lock files..."
    
    # Remove any existing lock files
    if [ -d ~/.gnupg ]; then
        find ~/.gnupg -name "*.lock" -delete 2>/dev/null
        rm -f ~/.gnupg/public-keys.d/pubring.db.lock 2>/dev/null
        echo "🗑️  Removed lock files"
    fi
    
    # Restart GPG agent
    echo "🔄 Restarting GPG agent..."
    gpgconf --reload gpg-agent
    
    # Test GPG
    echo "🧪 Testing GPG signing..."
    if echo "test" | gpg --clearsign > /dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo "✅ GPG is working properly now!"
    else
        echo "❌ GPG is still having issues. You may need manual intervention."
    fi
}

Just add it to your .zshrc and use via restart-gpg. To quickly do this, use:

echo '
function restart-gpg() {
    echo "🔍 Checking for GPG lock files..."
    
    # Remove any existing lock files
    if [ -d ~/.gnupg ]; then
        find ~/.gnupg -name "*.lock" -delete 2>/dev/null
        rm -f ~/.gnupg/public-keys.d/pubring.db.lock 2>/dev/null
        echo "🗑️  Removed lock files"
    fi
    
    # Restart GPG agent
    echo "🔄 Restarting GPG agent..."
    gpgconf --reload gpg-agent
    
    # Test GPG
    echo "🧪 Testing GPG signing..."
    if echo "test" | gpg --clearsign > /dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo "✅ GPG is working properly now!"
    else
        echo "❌ GPG is still having issues. You may need manual intervention."
    fi
}' >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc

THanks for the solution. My problem .lock file was also under public keys, FWIW!