Introduction

To provide an improved experience to any Git GUI using the command-line tools, this packaging of TortoiseGit’s customized plink provides a simple way to install TortoisePlink without the full TortoiseGit package.

Setup

Improved SSH interaction is as simple as downloading and installing TortoisePlink. But a few things should be checked.

• Ensure that the SSH, GIT_SSH, SVN_SSH, and CVS_RSH environment variables are not set for the user or system.
• Ensure that you are running the build of PuTTY that matches that of TortoisePlink if you want to use Peagent for you SSH keys.
• Ensure the VCS clients you are using, such as Git, do not have a specific SSH client specified.

Why Use TortoisePlink

1. It uses modal dialogs to communicate with the user. The version of plink provided with PuTTY uses text prompts when user interaction is required. Many GUI tools will not function correctly when such a prompt is presented.
2. PuTTY and Plink are the defacto standard for SSH on Windows. Most VCS tools on Windows will work with them out of the box, commerical and open-source.
3. Supports the Peagent key agent, just like the original. Since you are probably use to loading you keys up into Peagent, using TortoisePlink is just like using PuTTY or the original plink.