gpg: skipped "XXBDXX4E": secret key not available. gpg: signing failed: secret key not available

Question

I follow this tutorial: https://help.github.com/articles/signing-commits-using-gpg/

I try to sign when commit like this: https://github.com/spring-guides/tut-spring-boot-oauth2/commit/824f418ab9d04114b14a90f7c19b4b8d6dda67b7

but error:

C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\foo\test_gpg>git commit -m "test"
gpg: skipped "DABDD34E": secret key not available
gpg: signing failed: secret key not available
error: gpg failed to sign the data
fatal: failed to write commit object

My config:

C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\foo\test_gpg>git config --list --show-origin
file:"C:\\ProgramData/Git/config"       core.symlinks=false
file:"C:\\ProgramData/Git/config"       core.autocrlf=true
file:"C:\\ProgramData/Git/config"       core.fscache=true
file:"C:\\ProgramData/Git/config"       color.diff=auto
file:"C:\\ProgramData/Git/config"       color.status=auto
file:"C:\\ProgramData/Git/config"       color.branch=auto
file:"C:\\ProgramData/Git/config"       color.interactive=true
file:"C:\\ProgramData/Git/config"       help.format=html
file:"C:\\ProgramData/Git/config"       http.sslcainfo=C:/Program Files/Git/mingw64/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt
file:"C:\\ProgramData/Git/config"       diff.astextplain.textconv=astextplain
file:"C:\\ProgramData/Git/config"       rebase.autosquash=true
file:"C:\\Program Files\\Git\\mingw64/etc/gitconfig"    credential.helper=manager
file:C:/Users/Administrator/.gitconfig  user.name=donhuvy
file:C:/Users/Administrator/.gitconfig  [email protected]
file:C:/Users/Administrator/.gitconfig  user.signingkey=DABDD34E
file:C:/Users/Administrator/.gitconfig  commit.gpgsign=true
file:C:/Users/Administrator/.gitconfig  use.signingkey=DABDD34E
file:.git/config        core.repositoryformatversion=0
file:.git/config        core.filemode=false
file:.git/config        core.bare=false
file:.git/config        core.logallrefupdates=true
file:.git/config        core.symlinks=false
file:.git/config        core.ignorecase=true
file:.git/config        core.hidedotfiles=dotGitOnly
file:.git/config        remote.origin.url=https://github.com/donhuvy/test_gpg.git
file:.git/config        remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
file:.git/config        branch.master.remote=origin
file:.git/config        branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master
file:.git/config        commit.gpgsign=true

and

C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\foo\test_gpg>gpg --list-key
C:/Users/Administrator/AppData/Roaming/gnupg/pubring.gpg
--------------------------------------------------------
pub   2048R/DABDD34E 2016-06-10
uid       [ultimate] donhuvy (Do Nhu Vy) <[email protected]>
uid       [ultimate] Do Nhu Vy (Do Nhu Vy) <[email protected]>
sub   2048R/C6B535A2 2016-06-10

(I register 3 emails with GitHub: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]) What I have been wrong? How I sign my commit?

Answer 1

I too had the same problem. Unfortunately the error message does not pinpoint the real issue....which is that you have not configured git to use the gpg program you are using, which I suspect is gpg4win.[I have encountered this only on a Win machine]

git config --global gpg.program "C:/Program Files (x86)/GNU/GnuPG/gpg2.exe"

Please run the above command followed by the below.

git config user.signingkey DABDD34E

You many need to restart the terminal ; and reissue your git commit command.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I am using TortoiseGIT on Windows 10, and I was having the same problem right now.

For me this solved the problem:

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