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.

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!

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

This helped. Thanks a lot!

Big Thank you!!!!

Thanks, this helped. Had to delete this - rm -f ~/.gnupg/public-keys.d/pubring.db.lock

thanks a lot

Thanks man!

Thank you!!

you saved my day
Thank you!

You saved my day too 🙏

Thanks!

Works like a charm, thanks!

Thank you!

Thank you very much !!

Thank you very much

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.

Thanks, this worked for me.

Eaiser to list the lock files, works with both Linux and macOS:

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

You can also delete them at the same time ... (leave out the -print if you want to just delete the files and don't want to see their names)

find ~/.gnupg/ -name \*.lock -print -delete

removing the pubring lock file fixed for me

+1 thanks

Thanks. I spent all day trying to solve this issue, and your guide saved me. :)

Thank you for the guide.

Super helpful!