Published 2023-05-10.
Time to read: 1 minutes.
This page is part of the
git collection.
Libssh2 vs ssh
Libgit2 does not using the system ssh command.
Instead, it is statically linked to libssh2,
which does not read .ssh/config,
so libgit2 does not support that either.
In contrast, command line git uses the ssh command,
and therefore supports .ssh/config.
Specifiying an SSH Key
Git can be configured to use a specific ssh key for authorization of a given repo.
Within the repo, type:
Shell
$ git config core.sshCommand "ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa"
The above causes the following to be added to .git/config:
.git/config
[core]
sshCommand = ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa
This is helpful for debugging ssh connectivity issues, for example by increasing ssh verbosity:
Shell
$ git config core.sshCommand "ssh -vi ~/.ssh/id_rsa"
SSH Agents
Both command line git and libgit2 use any
ssh-agent that is running.
Shell
# Launch ssh-agent; best to do this in ~/.bashrc $ eval $(ssh-agent) > /dev/null
$ ssh-add Identity added: /home/mslinn/.ssh/id_rsa (/home/mslinn/.ssh/id_rsa)
$ ssh-add -l 1024 SHA256:Xdv1AE4QTd0NfrwOGVTamF/wxnvFufCtsOIoOXtX5Mw /home/mslinn/.ssh/id_rsa (RSA) $ echo $SSH_AGENT_PID 2196
