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How to understand the `gpg failed to sign the data` problem in git
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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). image 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
  1. 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!

@barraIhsan
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barraIhsan commented Aug 16, 2024

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
  ```

OMG tysm, I literally had no idea why gpg just froze and have to wait like 5 minute to prompt the passphrase, that sometimes even broken (i typed correctly but it still said incorrect). TYSM

@weskoerber
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weskoerber commented Aug 23, 2024

In my case, the error was caused because I wrote the config line as signkey instead of signingkey...

@aali309
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aali309 commented Sep 12, 2024 •
edited
Loading

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

This worked for me after trying all methods to resolve with m3 chip

below was my error when signing commits


14:40:24.528193 exec-cmd.c:139          trace: resolved executable path from Darwin stack: /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/git
14:40:24.528684 exec-cmd.c:238          trace: resolved executable dir: /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin
14:40:24.529477 git.c:460               trace: built-in: git commit -S -m 'signed commit'
14:40:24.533313 run-command.c:655       trace: run_command: gpg --status-fd=2 -bsau <gpgKey>
error: gpg failed to sign the data
fatal: failed to write commit object

@ijkeleher-anz
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ijkeleher-anz commented Sep 24, 2024

On MacOS, I have to install pinentry-mac to enter passphrase

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

Thanks for this!

10th-Jan-2024; Still works (mac m1)

And still working in September 2024, cheers!

@kyteidev
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kyteidev commented Oct 2, 2024

On MacOS, I have to install pinentry-mac to enter passphrase

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

Thanks for this!
10th-Jan-2024; Still works (mac m1)

And still working in September 2024, cheers!

also works for me

@peachey-nhs
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peachey-nhs commented Oct 9, 2024

git config --unset user.signingkey

Worked for me. Thanks!

@mochadwi
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mochadwi commented Oct 9, 2024

On MacOS, I have to install pinentry-mac to enter passphrase

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

thankks for this!

@awatson32
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awatson32 commented Nov 5, 2024

On MacOS, I have to install pinentry-mac to enter passphrase

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

Well over a year later and this solved the problem for me!

@chrismejia
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chrismejia commented Dec 19, 2024

What worked for me was slightly different than brew install pinentry-mac

I instead used reinstall since it was already installed.

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

Just encountered this issue as well; this worked for me. 👍 Thank you!

@sultanovich
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sultanovich commented Jan 6, 2025

Thanks @paolocarrasco , Your recommendation on how to get the error message allowed me to solve this problem.

Environment

Distributor ID: Debian
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Release:        12
Codename:       bookworm
$ git --version
git version 2.39.5

$ gpg --version | head -n3
gpg (GnuPG) 2.2.40
libgcrypt 1.10.1
Copyright (C) 2022 g10 Code GmbH

Problem

When I tried to send a change to my working branch I got the error described in the first comment. Including the debug I see the following:

$ GIT_TRACE=1 git commit -m "fix(servers): test fix 2859"
15:04:28.454825 git.c:460               trace: built-in: git commit -m 'fix(servers): test fix 2859'
15:04:28.471940 run-command.c:655       trace: run_command: gpg --status-fd=2 -bsau 6F5xxxx07
error: gpg failed to sign the data
fatal: failed to write commit object
$ echo "test" |  gpg --status-fd=2 -bsau 6F5xxxx07
[GNUPG:] KEY_CONSIDERED 7CE67A6AAC81CD865BC779D36F5xxxx07 2
[GNUPG:] BEGIN_SIGNING H10
[GNUPG:] PINENTRY_LAUNCHED 1798 curses 1.2.1 - xterm-256color - - 1000/1000 -
gpg: signing failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
[GNUPG:] FAILURE sign 83918950
gpg: signing failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

Solution

In my case, setting the pinentry value in the gpg-agent didn't work. But forcing the GPG_TTY variable to have the correct value without having to install additional packages did. The error probably occurs in this environment because it is a reduced installation without a graphical environment. I have not had errors like this before in Debian.

$ apt list --installed 2>/dev/null| grep pinentry
pinentry-curses/stable,now 1.2.1-1 amd64 [installed]
pinentry-tty/stable,now 1.2.1-1 amd64 [installed]

Therefore, the solution was to set the GPG_TTY variable and force it to be exported in new sessions.

$ export GPG_TTY=$(tty)
$ echo "export GPG_TTY=$(tty)" >> ~/.bashrc

@Daxtor134
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Daxtor134 commented Jan 31, 2025

On MacOS, I have to install pinentry-mac to enter passphrase

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

This is the true solution 👍

Thank you. I have been looking for a good solution, installed pinentry-mac from Brew but then got lost on why it wouldn't work lol.

@standiki
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standiki commented Feb 2, 2025

If this was your error:

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

Enabling a PIN or passphrase should solve your problem. Use the link below and scroll down to option number: 8, for the instructions on how to enable a PIN or passphrase. Thank you

https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/managing-commit-signature-verification/telling-git-about-your-signing-key

@2oji
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2oji commented Feb 10, 2025

I have followed below steps to make it work.

displaying-verification-statuses

gpg --version
gpg (GnuPG) 2.2.4
libgcrypt 1.8.1

Generating a new GPG key

gpg --full-generate-key

  1. Enter kind of key
  2. Enter key size
  3. Enter validity time as 1w
  4. Enter Any name
  5. Enter email id of git config --local user.email
  6. Enter passphrase.

Show keys

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

gpg --armor --export 57F4FA608D45BAB9 add this in Github account

git config --global --unset gpg.format

git config --global user.signingkey 57F4FA608D45BAB9

Below command shows error

GIT_TRACE=1 git commit -S -m "New"
20:12:12.634411 git.c:344               trace: built-in: git commit -S -m New
20:12:12.635410 run-command.c:646       trace: run_command: gpg --status-fd=2 -bsau 57F4FA608D45BAB9
error: gpg failed to sign the data
fatal: failed to write commit object

It stuck here

gpg --status-fd=2 -bsau 57F4FA608D45BAB9
[GNUPG:] KEY_CONSIDERED ECC43CBF86A5676302D329A157F4FA608D45BAB9 2
[GNUPG:] BEGIN_SIGNING H10

Error

echo "test" | gpg --clearsign
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

test
gpg: signing failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
gpg: [stdin]: clear-sign failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

export GPG_TTY=$(tty) It make it work.

PASS
echo "test" | gpg --clearsign

gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format=long
gpg --full-generate-key
gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format=long
gpg --armor --export 4345F02F0FDBDC48
git config --global user.signingkey 4345F02F0FDBDC48!
echo "test" | gpg --clearsign
GIT_TRACE=1 git commit -S -m "new GPG key"

@luisdcort
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luisdcort commented Mar 14, 2025

On MacOS, I have to install pinentry-mac to enter passphrase

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

This is the true solution 👍

Still working in March 2025! This is the way ❤️

@My-Name-Is-Jeff
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My-Name-Is-Jeff commented May 16, 2025

If you are on Windows and have used GPG4Win to manage your keys then you need to set the GPG program path.

If you look at where your gpg instance comes from mine looked like

Get-Command gpg | select Source

My gpg path was C:\Program Files (x86)\Gpg4win\..\GnuPG\bin\gpg.exe. That's quite a weird path .

But technically it is the same as "C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuPG\bin\gpg.exe"

So now set GIT to use this path:

git config --global gpg.program "C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuPG\bin\gpg.exe"

Essentially it seemed that the gpg program that was being used was different to the one being run when I used gpg on the command line.

Thanks

@EngineersBox
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EngineersBox commented May 30, 2025

Just a heads up for MacOS users, if you configure XDG_CONFIG_HOME in your ~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc, etc. this can cause issues with GPG signing. Remove it and start a new shell session.

@aluri-satya
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aluri-satya commented Jul 4, 2025

brew install gpg2
export GPG_TTY=$(tty)
gpgconf --launch gpg-agent
gpgconf --launch dirmngr
brew reinstall gnupg
chmod 700 ~/.gnupg
chmod 600 ~/.gnupg/*
gpgconf --kill gpg-agent
gpgconf --kill dirmngr
gpgconf --launch gpg-agent
gpgconf --launch dirmngr
echo "pinentry-program $(which pinentry-mac)" >> ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf
gpgconf --kill gpg-agent
git config --global gpg.program /usr/local/bin/gpg
git config --global commit.gpgsign true
echo "test" | gpg --clearsign

these steps helped me

@webdev23
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webdev23 commented Jul 6, 2025 •
edited
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Everywhere GPG is used this mess arise.
As a result your code IS GARBAGE.
AGAIN.

@ajithMagic
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ajithMagic commented Jul 11, 2025

Thanks ❤️

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