Plink console windows with bazaar

Resolve plink annoyances

If you get annoyed by all the plink console windows: It seems, Bazaar is still using the default Putty version of plink, which always shows a console window. TortoiseSVN eg. uses TortoisePLink.exe, which is a modified version of plink, that runs invisibly, without a console window. It does not seem to work to replace the putty plink.exe with the TortoisePLink.exe.

The solution is to use paramiko, a python tool that deals with SSH connections. It seems there is the suggestion to make paramiko the default instead of plink.exe (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/bzr/+bug/414743).

To install paramiko now, using instructions from http://www.andreas-schlapsi.com/2008/03/29/using-bazaar-and-launchpad-on-windows/:

• Download and install the 2.7.1 release (32-bit) of Python for Windows: http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.7.1/
  • Don't download and install the 2.7.1 64-bit release as pycrypto won't work with it.
  • If you have a newer version of Python installed on your computer you still need to install 2.7.1 as pycrypto only works against this particular version!

• Download and install pycrypto: http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/modules.shtml#pycrypto
• Download the zip file http://www.lag.net/paramiko/
• Unzip and run on the command line:

cd paramiko-1.7.4
c:\python27\python.exe setup.py install

• Now remove the variable BZR_SSH from the environment variables in case you have it set.

After following those steps you won't get the plink console windows anymore when doing any bazaar operation.