Fix git plink unknown option error

Paul Sweeney · 20th January 2021

quicktips   git   ssh   plink

The error plink: unknown option "-o" indicates that the git ssh command has been set to plink.exe, but git believes it is interacting with an OpenSSH command.

To fix the error, choose one of the following to set the ssh variant …

  • Set the following config in the appropriate (--global, --system or --local) git config e.g. by issuing git config --global --edit : 
    [ssh]
  variant = plink
  • Do it all in one with: 
    git config --global ssh.variant plink
  • If the ssh.variant is already explicitly set to ssh, then just removing this hard setting and allowing git to auto-detect may well be enough - e.g. git config --global --unset ssh.variant
  • Environment variables override git config, so if the ssh command has been set to plink via environment variable, set the following environment variable (use the same user/system scope as current GIT_SSH and GIT_SSH_COMMAND setting) 
    GIT_SSH_VARIANT=plink

Thanks

Solution found due this StackOverflow response