Eliminate need for ssh command

[ahmetb]

This severely damages boot2docker experience on Windows (cmd.exe/powershell)

Many boot2docker commands require ssh.exe to be in %PATH% and some even mysteriously fail and you need -v to see the missing ssh.exe failure...

Current solution is to add msysgit's bin\ folder to the PATH by every time you start a shell:

$Env:Path = "${Env:Path};c:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin" // on PowerShell

or

set PATH=%PATH%;"c:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin" // on Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

This is a crappy experience for users running outside msys (= most windows users).

If we can eliminate need to ssh.exe we can have a way better experience on Windows! It might be possible with experimental golang crypto/ssh package. (docker-machine is also tackling the same problem):

• https://github.com/docker/machine/issues/555
• https://github.com/docker/machine/issues/730

@tianon wdyt? I can take a look if the idea sounds sane and maybe we can land for 1.6? Otherwise b2d experience outside msys is a bit crappy because you need to add ssh.exe to PATH all the time.

[tianon]

I think it's an interesting idea, but there's no way I'd be comfortable landing it in 1.6, even if a PR implementing it was already open.

Right now, the "canonical" way to run "boot2docker.exe" is via an msysGit bash shell, which will mean ssh in the PATH. In the future, I think we should definitely look into this though, especially if docker-machine actually lands a good implementation (since they'll have more people testing to make sure it's reasonably feature-complete).

[ahmetb]

@tianon hmm yeah, the only reason I brought up this is even running boot2docker shellinit on cmd.exe/powershell.exe requires ssh and we don't print cmd/PS instructions on msysGit.

I'll probably look forward to implement this for 1.7.

[RomanSaveljev]

Let us not forget that native Windows client for Docker is (allegedly) coming...

[ahmetb]

things are better nowadays; closing.