Git clone / pull continually freezing at "Store key in cache?"

  1. Open Putty
  2. Type in the Host Name (like bitbucket.org)
  3. Click Open
  4. Click yes in the popup to cache the host key
  5. Close Putty

I had this problem when cloning a repo on Windows 10 too.

I got around it by using the Putty GUI to SSH to the server in question (in your case: bitbucket.org) then clicked 'Yes' when the prompt asks if you want to save the server key to the cache. Running the clone command again then worked for me!


I managed to get it working by running plink directly, after pageant is running use the plink command directly - plink.exe -agent -v [email protected] then after this git works without hanging.


To do this from powershell open a powershell window and paste in the following:

echo y | & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\GitExtensions\PuTTY\plink.exe' -ssh [email protected]
echo y | & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\GitExtensions\PuTTY\plink.exe' -ssh [email protected]
echo y | & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\GitExtensions\PuTTY\plink.exe' -ssh [email protected]

or with PuTTY standalone version:

echo y | & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\plink.exe' -ssh [email protected]
echo y | & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\plink.exe' -ssh [email protected]
echo y | & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\plink.exe' -ssh [email protected]

Also worth knowing is that putty stores known hosts under a registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SoftWare\SimonTatham\PuTTY\SshHostKeys

To shortcut the above you could put the following in a .reg file and run it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SimonTatham\PuTTY\SshHostKeys]
"rsa2@22:github.com"="0x23,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"
"rsa2@22:gist.github.com"="0x23,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"
"rsa2@22:bitbucket.org"="0x23,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"

putty-hosts.reg gist