Git clone with custom SSH using GIT_SSH error

Question

I am trying to clone a Git repo using a custom SSH command. I set the SSH command in the GIT_SSH environmental variably be running

export GIT_SSH="/usr/bin/ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i /home/me/my_private_key".

But when, after the previous command I run

git clone git@bitbucket.org:uname/test-git-repo.git, I get the following weird error

error: cannot run /usr/bin/ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i /home/me/my_private_key
fatal: unable to fork

Can you please help me out solve this issue?

Answer 1

You cannot provide options in the GIT_SSH environment variable; from the git man page:

   GIT_SSH
       If this environment variable is set then git fetch and git push will use this command instead of ssh when they need to connect
       to a remote system. The $GIT_SSH command will be given exactly two arguments: the username@host (or just host) from the URL
       and the shell command to execute on that remote system.

       To pass options to the program that you want to list in GIT_SSH you will need to wrap the program and options into a shell
       script, then set GIT_SSH to refer to the shell script.

One option is to add a stanza to your .ssh/config file with the appropriate configuration:

Host bitbucket.org
  StrictHostKeyChecking no
  IdentityFile /home/me/my_private_key

Another option is to point GIT_SSH to a shell script that does what you want. E.g., in /home/me/bin/bitbucket_ssh, put:

#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/bin/ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i /home/me/my_private_key "$@"

And then point GIT_SSH at /home/me/bin/bitbucket_ssh.

I prefer using .ssh/config when possible, because this avoids the need to create a per-destination script for each remote.