GPG for Git¶

For more information on just GPG, see ../linux/tools/gpg.md

Table of Contents¶

Adding a GPG Key to Github
- Generate a New GPG Key
- Add the New GPG Key to Github
Signing Commits with GPG
Plain GPG Protected Credential Helper
- Using GPG for Github Authentication
Setting up a GPG Agent

Adding a GPG Key to Github¶

Generate a New GPG Key¶

First, you'll need to generate a GPG key before you can add it to Github.
1. Run the command to generate a new key:

gpg --full-generate-key

2. Specify the type. RSA (default) is good. 3. Specify key size (4096)
4. Enter when key will expire
* This is optional. You can leave it blank if you don't want the key to expire.
5. Verify
6. Enter your user info * Note: Use the email associated with your GitHub account. 7. Set a password

Add the New GPG Key to Github¶

List your GPG keys to find the Key ID.

gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format=long

You will see an output that looks like this:

/home/user/.gnupg/secring.gpg  
-----------------------------  
sec   4096R/<Your-Key-ID> 2021-01-01 [expires: 2024-01-01]  
# or  
sec   rsa4096/<Your-Key-ID> 2021-01-01 [expires: 2024-01-01]

Take <Your-Key-ID>. This is your Key ID.

Add the public key to GH account.
- Export your public key using your Key ID:
```
gpg --armor --export <Your-Key-ID>  
```
  - If you want, redirect to a file (> gpg_key.txt) for easy copypasta.
- On Github, go to Profile -> Settings -> SSH and GPG keys.
- Select "Add GPG Key", and paste your public key.

Signing Commits with GPG¶

Configure Git to use your GPG key.
- Set your signingkey in your .gitconfig:
```
git config --global user.signingkey <Your-Key-ID>  
```
- To sign all commits by default in any local repository on your computer:
```
git config --global commit.gpgsign true  
```

Plain GPG Protected Credential Helper¶

Using GPG authentication with git is not as straightforward as using SSH authentication.
You have to set up a credential helper and then set up a password manager.

Using GPG for Github Authentication¶

If you're using HTTP/HTTPS authentication, and you want to authenticate with
your GPG key, you can set up a credential helper:
```
git config --global credential.credentialStore gpg  
```
Initialize pass with the Key ID you got when you generated the GPG key.
```
pass init <Your-Key-ID>  
```

Setting up a GPG Agent¶

By default, GPG requires a passphrase every time you use it (e.g., to sign a commit).
You're able to cache the passphrase by using gpg-agent.
To enable caching, set up gpg-agent by adding a few entries into ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf:

mkdir ~/.gnupg
echo "default-cache-ttl 600" >> ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf
echo "max-cache-ttl 7200" >> ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf

* default-cache-ttl 600: Caches the passphrase for 10 minutes.
* max-cache-ttl 7200: Maximum cache duration of 2 hours.

Restart the GPG agent:

gpgconf --kill gpg-agent
gpgconf --launch gpg-agent

If you're using GPG to sign Git commits, make sure Git is using gpg-agent by adding an entry into ~/.bashrc:

export GPG_TTY=$(tty)

Reload bash with exec bash -l or source ~/.bashrc and you're set.