git commit signing failed: secret key not available

Question

I am getting this error when trying to commit using Git.

gpg: skipped \"name \": secret key not available
gpg: signing failed: secret ke         


        

Answer 1

You have to set the variable GNUPGHOME. Without it, GnuPG is not able to find your keys.

# On unix add it to your path

# On windows it will usually be under: 
<drive>:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\gnupg

On Unix it simply adding it to the path.
On Windows you have to open the control panel and set it as

System Variable
  Name: GNUPGHOME
  Path: <drive>:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\gnupg

Answer 2

I had a situation in which the same was happening to me in a Windows 10 machine.

$ git commit -m "Improve logging, imports and show time executed"
gpg: signing failed: Operation cancelled
gpg: signing failed: Operation cancelled
error: gpg failed to sign the data
fatal: failed to write commit object

The commands "C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuPG\bin\gpg.exe" --list-secret-keys --keyid-format LONG and gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format LONG where giving me complete different results!

$ where gpg
C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\gpg.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuPG\bin\gpg.exe

The main reason was related to previous answers but on a different sense:

• I was creating the gpg keys using the git (configured path) version of GPG
• Git was configured to use the downloaded version of gpg for the commit.
• Seems GPG implementations use their own certificate database and storage.

I hope this can help anyone that stumbles on this message and previous answers do not solve ther issue.

Answer 3

Maybe you need to clone your own repository where you have rights. I had this issue when I cloned the repository of another person.