Update recommended configuration for GPG signing

This attempts to document the new recommended configuration to sign artifacts with the maven-gpg-plugin as part of the deploy process. It imitates this PR from the maintainer of the maven-gpg-plugin: https://github.com/xerial/sqlite-jdbc/pull/1082/files Notes that this requires the maven-gpg-plugin version 3.2.0 or above, not sure if this is worth adding to the documentation as I expect this guide will mostly be followed by people setting up a new project (hopefully using the latest version of the plugin by default). @cstamas I hope I got it right, feel free to suggest any improvements
brunoborges · Jul 14, 2026 · Mar 13, 2024 · Mar 13, 2024 · Jun 22, 2026 · Jun 22, 2026
commit 58d36cecb096de30b20614b06803b271a666072c
@@ -283,14 +283,13 @@ jobs:
         server-id: maven # Value of the distributionManagement/repository/id field of the pom.xml
         server-username: MAVEN_USERNAME # env variable for username in deploy
         server-password: MAVEN_CENTRAL_TOKEN # env variable for token in deploy
-        gpg-private-key: ${{ secrets.MAVEN_GPG_PRIVATE_KEY }} # Value of the GPG private key to import
-        gpg-passphrase: MAVEN_GPG_PASSPHRASE # env variable for GPG private key passphrase
 
     - name: Publish to Apache Maven Central
-      run: mvn deploy
+      run: mvn deploy -Dgpg.signer=bc
       env:
         MAVEN_USERNAME: maven_username123
         MAVEN_CENTRAL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.MAVEN_CENTRAL_TOKEN }}
+        MAVEN_GPG_KEY: ${{ secrets.MAVEN_GPG_PRIVATE_KEY }} # Value of the GPG private key to import
         MAVEN_GPG_PASSPHRASE: ${{ secrets.MAVEN_GPG_PASSPHRASE }}
 ```
 
@@ -326,10 +325,6 @@ The two `settings.xml` files created from the above example look like the follow
       <username>${env.MAVEN_USERNAME}</username>
       <password>${env.MAVEN_CENTRAL_TOKEN}</password>
     </server>
-    <server>
-      <id>gpg.passphrase</id>
-      <passphrase>${env.MAVEN_GPG_PASSPHRASE}</passphrase>
-    </server>
   </servers>
 </settings>
 ```
@@ -338,21 +333,6 @@ The two `settings.xml` files created from the above example look like the follow
 
 If you don't want to overwrite the `settings.xml` file, you can set `overwrite-settings: false`
 
-### Extra setup for pom.xml:
-
-The Maven GPG Plugin configuration in the pom.xml file should contain the following structure to avoid possible issues like `Inappropriate ioctl for device` or `gpg: signing failed: No such file or directory`:
-
-```xml
-<configuration>
-  <!-- Prevent gpg from using pinentry programs -->
-  <gpgArguments>
-    <arg>--pinentry-mode</arg>
-    <arg>loopback</arg>
-  </gpgArguments>
-</configuration>
-```
-GPG 2.1 requires `--pinentry-mode` to be set to `loopback` in order to pick up the `gpg.passphrase` value defined in Maven `settings.xml`.
-
 ### GPG
 
 If `gpg-private-key` input is provided, the private key will be written to a file in the runner's temp directory, the private key file will be imported into the GPG keychain, and then the file will be promptly removed before proceeding with the rest of the setup process. A cleanup step will remove the imported private key from the GPG keychain after the job completes regardless of the job status. This ensures that the private key is no longer accessible on self-hosted runners and cannot "leak" between jobs (hosted runners are always clean instances).