How to understand the `gpg failed to sign the data` problem in git

README.md

Problem

You have installed GPG, then tried to perform a git commit and suddenly you see this error message after it 😰

error: gpg failed to sign the data
fatal: failed to write commit object

Understand the error (important to solve it later!)

To understand what's going on, first check what git is doing, so add GIT_TRACE=1 at the beginning of the command you used before (git commit or git rebase or git merge or anything like that):

GIT_TRACE=1 git commit

With that you can see what GPG is doing.

You will see something like this:

10:37:22.346480 run-command.c:637       trace: run_command: gpg --status-fd=2 -bsau <your GPG key>

(First thing would be to check if your GPG key is correct)

Execute that gpg command again in the command line:

gpg --status-fd=2 -bsau <your GPG key>

👆🏻 Executing this will give you a useful output that will allow you to see what happened in detail 🙌🏼

Check now the possible solutions based on your findings 👀

Some solutions

We can have many problems, but I list what I found and some solutions posted in the thread:

1. It could be that the GPG key was expired: https://stackoverflow.com/a/47561300/532912

2. Another thing could be that the secret key was not set properly (In my case the message said gpg: signing failed: No secret key as it can be see in the image below). It means that is not finding the key that was set. You would need to set up the GPG key in Git (again):

   • List the secret keys available in GPG.

   gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format=long

   • Copy your key
   • Set your key for your user in git

   git config --global user.signingkey <your key>

3. Another popular solution that could help was shared here by @NirajanMahara: https://gist.github.com/paolocarrasco/18ca8fe6e63490ae1be23e84a7039374?permalink_comment_id=3767413#gistcomment-3767413

4. A specific and popular solution posted for mac users by @lehaiquantb suggests to install pinentry (I'm not a fan of installing stuff but if you are ok with it):

brew install pinentry-mac
echo "pinentry-program $(which pinentry-mac)" >> ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf
killall gpg-agent

5. You can see in the thread of this gist other ways to find the solution to other problems. I recommend to read the Github guide for signing commits with GPG.

Hope it helps!

It seems for every branch I have, I need to execute the export GPG_TTY=$(tty) command before committing.

Is there anyway around this?

It worked for me. Thank you!

For me the issue is always simply the fact that my vscode terminal window is too small, git needs like half a screen's height and about the width of this comment section for it to surface the GPG prompt, otherwise it errors out and tells you that:

error: gpg failed to sign the data
fatal: failed to write commit object

so I enlarge the window and voila all fixed when I run git commit again.

There's another situation:

sec   dsa3072/AAAAAAAAAAAAA 2010-05-05 [SC] [expires: 2030-05-05]
      BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
uid                 [ultimate] Author Name <author-email@domain.com>

While GitHub documentation operates with AAAAAAAAAAAAA in sections when you need to create and register the key in GPG, git requires BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB, i.e. git config --global user.signingkey BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB, instead of git config --global user.signingkey AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Hopefully, it helps someone.

It helped me, thanks!

worked for me thank you for this!

Great! Thanks for your help!

Thank you 🙏

thank you

I was trying to solve this for 2 days! thanks!

3. then use export GPG_TTY=$(tty)

It also helped to to set it permanently in ~/.profile on Ubuntu (to do so, append export GPG_TTY=$(tty) to the ~/.profile file).

I had the same issue. The output of the command gpg --status-fd=2 -bsau was fine. It turns out my git config in the repo was the problematic. I deleted the [user] and [gpg] entries in .git/config, and then I reconfigured the pgp globally via git config --global gpg.program gpg and git config --global user.signingkey "<my signing key>" once again. Then it worked.

4. echo "test" | gpg --clearsign

this worked for me +1

I just killed the gpg-agent and started again and it worked for me

killall gpg-agent
gpg-agent daemon

thanks, @paolocarrasco

There's another situation:

sec   dsa3072/AAAAAAAAAAAAA 2010-05-05 [SC] [expires: 2030-05-05]
      BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
uid                 [ultimate] Author Name <author-email@domain.com>

While GitHub documentation operates with AAAAAAAAAAAAA in sections when you need to create and register the key in GPG, git requires BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB, i.e. git config --global user.signingkey BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB, instead of git config --global user.signingkey AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Hopefully, it helps someone.

This solution also works for me. Thank you!

omg I just need to run export GPG_TTY=$(tty)

3. then use export GPG_TTY=$(tty)

this one worked for me as well.

3. then use export GPG_TTY=$(tty)

Thank you! it works for me!

Thank You, @paolocarrasco

It works. Thank you!

gpg: skipped "D6F50106F5C8A98B": No secret key
gpg: signing failed: No secret key
error: gpg failed to sign the data
fatal: failed to write commit object

I am getting this error since few days, I have regenerated the gpg key many times. but still I am getting this error. What should I do to get rid of this error. Please help as soon as possible.

@exostin
After struggling for hours, I finally get rid of this error.
Thanks man

@NirajanMahara lifesaver!
Your solution worked out for me.

I you're on WSL2, maybe this can help:

• Add those lines to ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf

  use-agent 
  pinentry-mode loopback
  

• Add this line to ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf

  allow-loopback-pinentry
  

I was getting the error

gpg: skipped "29D277CEFE65F74E": No secret key
gpg: signing failed: No secret key
error: gpg failed to sign the data
fatal: failed to write commit object

I just need to set the

gpg.program="C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuPG\bin\gpg.exe"

to

gpg.program=gpg

THANKYOU @victorjatoba

This exactly solved my problem. Great thanks! @victorjatoba

Thanks @paolocarrasco

Thanks @paolocarrasco, you are awesome

I just killed the gpg-agent and started again and it worked for me

killall gpg-agent
gpg-agent daemon

Yes, sometimes pinentry-mac update brakes gpg-agent

Additionally, if you are using a mac and you are experiencing an issue, try step number 8: https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/managing-commit-signature-verification/telling-git-about-your-signing-key?platform=mac

$ brew install pinentry-mac
$ echo "pinentry-program $(which pinentry-mac)" >> ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf
$ killall gpg-agent

basically, it allows/forces your device to ask the password of the key

Super useful, thank you very much!

Thanks :) @T410