git - gpg onto mac osx: error: gpg failed to sign the data
I installed GPG from brew.
brew install gpg
It is gnupg2-2.0.30_2.
When I commit, I do get a error message:
You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "Max Mustermann (mycomment) <[email protected]>"
2048-bit RSA key, ID 1111AAAA, created 2017-01-05
error: gpg failed to sign the data
fatal: failed to write commit object
I used the command:
gpg --list-secret-keys | grep ^sec
and it gives me back:
sec 2048R/1111AAAA 2017-01-05
Then I used this command:
git config --global user.signingkey 1111AAAA
commit gives me back the same error message.
How can I solve this problem?
Answer
If you’re not getting prompted at all for a passphrase, the solution may just be to install a program to facilitate that. The most common is pinentry.
brew install pinentry-mac
So installing that and trying again may get things working. But if not, another thing to do is make sure git it using/finding the right GPG program. These days you really should be using gpg2, so if you don’t already have that installed, do:
brew install gnupg2
And then, to tell git that’s the GPG program want to you, this:
git config --global gpg.program gpg2
At that point, try your commit again and things may just work.
But if not, then try this:
echo "pinentry-program /usr/local/bin/pinentry-mac" >> ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf
…and then try again.
Note: Per some comments below, in order for this change to take effect, you apparently might need to reboot after making the change.