The error when trying to sign without a gpg key is not good
Metadata
Current evaluation
Missing-GPG-key handling for sign-build was improved by merged snapcraft#848, which prompts users to select a key instead of showing an unhelpful error.
Resolution: closed resolved
Reason: Resolved by snapcore/snapcraft#848, merged as commit d0b49816f. The change improved sign-build handling by prompting users to select a key when no suitable GPG key is available.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
No scores available.
Issue body
I'm trying to sign a snap, but my user doesn't have a gpg key generated. The error message is the following:
$ snapcraft sign-build *.snap
error: cannot use "default" key: cannot find key named "default" in GPG keyring
Failed to sign build assertion for u1test20161003_0.10~s16_amd64.snap.
That's not really useful. It doesn't tell me how to generate the default key.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Missing-GPG-key handling for sign-build was improved by merged snapcraft#848, which prompts users to select a key instead of showing an unhelpful error. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Improved missing-GPG-key handling for sign-build by prompting users to select a key; merged in snapcraft#848 via commit d0b49816f. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed without a documented fix; no resolving PR, commit, version, or maintainer explanation was found. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Abandoned due to inactivity. The unhelpful error message when signing snaps without a GPG key was never improved. No fix or follow-up was provided. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | The unhelpful GPG signing error report was closed without resolution. No fix or error handling improvement was implemented, and the request appears abandoned. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Abandoned. Closed without resolution or comments. The requested improvement to the GPG key error message was not implemented. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Unhelpful GPG signing error reporting was closed without resolution. No comments or follow-up occurred, indicating the report was abandoned. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Likely Fixed By:
snapcore/snapcraft#848
(confidence 99%)
The referenced PR was merged as commit d0b49816f and directly addressed missing-GPG-key handling.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1631407 ugly error when failed to sign because of wrong password | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Maintainer-requested UX fix: snapcraft sign-build shows raw gpg stderr and a doubly-wrapped 'cannot sign assertion' message on a bad passphrase instead of a readable cause. Still unfixed in snapcraft/commands/keys.py. |