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Setting up Git commit signing to verify your commits

Signing using GPG​

To sign Git commits with GPG, read GitHub's docs on managing signature verification.

To test if you get an error when signing keys, run this:

echo "test" | gpg --clearsign

If you get this error:

gpg: signing failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
gpg: [stdin]: clear-sign failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

Then run this:

export GPG_TTY=$(tty)

If you don't want to do that every time, you can add it to your .bash_profile

  1. Type sudo nano ~/.bash_profile into your terminal and press Enter
  2. Paste export GPG_TTY=$(tty)
  3. Press Ctrl+O to initiate writing the file out
  4. Press Enter to write the file out
  5. Press Ctrl+X to close the file

Updating a fork​

You can update a fork by adding an "upstream" branch along to your "origin" branch by following the GitHub tutorials.