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:

  ls -l ~/.gnupg/*.lock

• Remove the Identified Stale Lock File:

  rm ~/.gnupg/[name-of-the-stale-lock-file].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! This helped a ton.

Thanks a lot 👍

in my case on macOS Catalia Version 10.15.7
the lock file here /Users/moncefbouallagui/.gnupg/public-keys.d/pubring.db.lock

Kudos!

Thank you @bahadiraraz and @bmoncef-oa, you guys helped a lot!

For users on Darwin (MacOS)

Expanding upon @bmoncef-oa's comment, use the following command:

ls -l ~/.gnupg/**/*.lock

This lets you list all lockfiles without manually exploring each subdirectory.