TortoiseGit and Pageant, have to "add key" every time

Rick Hodgin picture Rick Hodgin · Aug 15, 2011 · Viewed 13.9k times · Source

Background: I'm using git and TortoiseGit with github.com. My development cycle on the .git local branch goes like this:

1) Make whatever changes
2) Right-click on directory, choose "Git Commit -> branch"
3) Input the message and commit
4) Right-click on same directory, choose "Git Push"
5) I choose my options and...

The first time each time I do this each day, Pageant auto-loads in the background and its icon appears in the system tray. But, it is not remembering the private.ppk I had previously loaded the day (or reboot) before.

Each time I have to:

Right-click -> "Add key" -> and then redo 4) and 5) above

and then it works. I have created a manual icon/shortcut I can click which auto-loads:

"C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin\pageant.exe" c:\path\to\private.ppk

And if I launch with that shortcut, it loads the key into memory and works fine.


Question: How can I get TortoiseGit to remember or pass that "c:\path\to\private.ppk" parameter to pageant so when it auto-loads that first time it also auto-loads my private key?

Is there a persistent setting I can use?

Thanks in advance! :-)

Answer

Simon East picture Simon East · May 2, 2012

I just place a shortcut to pageant.exe with my PPK in my Start Menu "Startup" folder, so that it loads automatically when Windows boots (although it asks for the password then too).

"C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin\pageant.exe" "D:\Dev\Git Private Key.ppk"