GPG fails during git commit

Question

I have gpg setup on my local machine and most of the time it works. But sometimes the commit takes about a minute and then fails. When commiting something I just get the output:

gpg: DBG: Not using CREATE_BREAKAWAY_FROM_JOB flag
gpg: can't connect to the agent: IPC connect call failed
gpg: keydb_search failed: No agent running
gpg: skipped "<mykeyid>": No agent running
gpg: signing failed: No agent running
error: gpg failed to sign the data
fatal: failed to write commit object

So I thought maybe there is no gpg agent running and I started one:

>gpg-agent --daemon --verbose
gpg-agent: a gpg-agent is already running - not starting a new one

---

Someone suggested on different threads that maybe my gpg versions mismatch or target different installations:

>gpg --version
gpg (GnuPG) 2.2.23-unknown
libgcrypt 1.8.7

>gpg-agent --version
gpg-agent (GnuPG) 2.2.23-unknown
libgcrypt 1.8.7

So the versions seem to be the same and the installation directory seems to be ok too:

>which gpg
/usr/bin/gpg

>which gpg-agent
/usr/bin/gpg-agent

---

For additional information: I'm running Windows 10 with gpg4win 3.1.16, commit using sublime merge or git cli.

>gpg --list-keys --keyid-format LONG
/c/Users/micha/.gnupg/pubring.kbx
---------------------------------
pub   ed25519/<mykeyid> 2021-03-02 [SCA] [expires: 2023-03-02]
      <someotherid>
uid                 [ unknown] <mymail1>
uid                 [ unknown] <mymail2>
sub   cv25519/<someotherid> 2021-03-02 [E] [expires: 2023-03-02]

Answer 1

I guess it's because your key is untrusted. GPG by default does not use an untrusted key.

Solution #1: Edit key trust

You can edit the key like that, with trust command:

gpg --edit-key <fingerprint>

Secret key is available.

sec  rsa4096/****************
     created: 2022-10-24  expires: never       usage: SC  
     trust: unknown       validity: full
ssb  rsa4096/****************
     created: 2022-10-24  expires: never       usage: E   
[  unknown  ] (1). John Doe (Test Key) <[email protected]>

gpg> trust

Please decide how far you trust this user to correctly verify other users' keys
(by looking at passports, checking fingerprints from different sources, etc.)

  1 = I don't know or won't say
  2 = I do NOT trust
  3 = I trust marginally
  4 = I trust fully
  5 = I trust ultimately
  m = back to the main menu

Your decision?

4

Solution #2: Sign the key

When you sign a key with your ultimately trusted key, its trust is automatically set as full.

gpg --sign-key <fingerprint>

Note that this action creates an exportable signature for another person's key. It is not recommended if you don't really trust the person.

Hope that helps!