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@ankurk91
Last active June 7, 2024 14:31
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Signing git commits using GPG (Ubuntu/Mac)

Github : Signing commits using GPG (Ubuntu/Mac) 🔐

  • Do you have an Github account ? If not create one.
  • Install required tools
  • Latest Git Client
  • gpg tools
# Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install gpa seahorse
# MacOS with https://brew.sh/
brew install gpg
  • Generate a new gpg key
gpg --gen-key
  • Answer the questions asked

Note: When asked to enter your email address, ensure that you enter the verified email address for your GitHub account.

  • List generated key
gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format LONG
  • Above command should return like this
/home/username/.gnupg/secring.gpg
-------------------------------
sec   4096R/<COPY_LONG_KEY> 2016-08-11 [expires: 2018-08-11]
uid                          User Name <user.name@email.com>
ssb   4096R/62E5B29EEA7145E 2016-08-11

  • Note down your key COPY_LONG_KEY from above (without < and >)
  • Export this (public) key to a text file
gpg --armor --export <PASTE_LONG_KEY_HERE> > gpg-key.txt
  • Above command will create a new txt file gpg-key.txt

  • Add this key to GitHub

  • Login to Github and goto profile settings

  • Click New GPG Key and paste the contents of gpg-key.txt file then save

  • Tell git client to auto sign your future commits

  • Use the long key from above in next command

git config --global user.signingkey <PASTE_LONG_KEY_HERE>
git config --global commit.gpgsign true
  • You are done, next time when you commit changes; gpg will ask you the passphrase.

Make gpg remember your passphrase (tricky)

To make it remember your password, you can use gpg-agent

Edit your ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf file and paste these lines

default-cache-ttl 28800
max-cache-ttl 28800

28800 seconds means 8 hours

If gpg-agent is not running you can start it with this command

gpg-agent --daemon

Change your key passphrase

gpg --edit-key <PASTE_YOUR_KEY_ID_HERE>

At the gpg prompt type:

passwd

Type in the current passphrase when prompted
Type in the new passphrase twice when prompted
Type:

save

Reference links

@ankurk91
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Author

@kmoll
The man page says that it should be max-cache-ttl

@nelson6e65
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nelson6e65 commented May 3, 2018

Hi. In my case, it was not working due to gpg version used by git.

Here's the solution: Setup git to use gpg2 instead of gpg
https://askubuntu.com/a/805550

@ankurk91 The man page you linked is for version 2:

This is the The GNU Privacy Guard Manual (version 2.2.7, April 2018).

@tedbyron
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tedbyron commented Jun 4, 2018

Thanks! All of these steps work on Windows as well with the Windows gpg binary and any unix shell emulator

@kaushalvivek
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Thanks! Was really helpful.

@chizou
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chizou commented Aug 6, 2018

My output came out a bit different. For the part with updating git to use the key, I had to specify --keyid-format SHORT, as in gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format SHORT. For reference, I'm using gpg (GnuPG) 2.2.4 libgcrypt 1.8.1

@duffn
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duffn commented Sep 2, 2018

Thanks, this is a very helpful gist.

@cbismuth
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cbismuth commented Sep 7, 2018

Thank you! I had to add this command line git config --global gpg.program gpg2.

@joe42
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joe42 commented Nov 15, 2018

Note that when generating the key, use the output of git config --get user.name as the name and git config --get user.email as the email address. Otherwise, committing will fail.

@xbrunosousa
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Nice! 🤓

@apoclyps
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apoclyps commented Dec 3, 2019

I had issues running this; It failed to sign commits until I added the following:

GPG_TTY=$(tty)
export GPG_TTY

@cesc1989
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cesc1989 commented Jul 3, 2020

Awesome. Thanks.

@SamyCoenen
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Great guide thanks!
When I first tried to create a signed commit, it gave an error:

error: gpg failed to sign the data

I fixed it by killing the running agent killall gpg-agent and starting it again with gpg-agent --daemon

@RentecJeremy
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Thank you! This works with Windows & Powershell as well if you've installed GIT with all of the bundled Unix tools

@cawa-93
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cawa-93 commented May 31, 2022

Is there any way to sign committees without entering a passphrase but using Windows hello?

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