---
name: "hg-ssh"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "mercurial"
version: "7.2.4-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/hg-ssh"
---

# hg-ssh(8)

restricted ssh login shell for Mercurial

## NAME

hg-ssh - restricted ssh login shell for Mercurial

## SYNOPSIS

**hg-ssh** repositories...

## DESCRIPTION

**hg-ssh** is a wrapper for ssh access to a limited set of mercurial repos.

To be used in ~/.ssh/authorized\_keys with the "command" option, see [sshd(8)](/sshd/8.md): command="hg-ssh path/to/repo1 /path/to/repo2 ~/repo3 ~user/repo4" ssh-dss ... (probably together with these other useful options: no-port-forwarding,no-X11-forwarding,no-agent-forwarding)

This allows pull/push over ssh from/to the repositories given as arguments.

If all your repositories are subdirectories of a common directory, you can allow shorter paths with: command="cd path/to/my/repositories && hg-ssh repo1 subdir/repo2"

You can use pattern matching of your normal shell, e.g.: command="cd repos && hg-ssh user/thomas/\* projects/{mercurial,foo}"

You can also add a --read-only flag to allow read-only access to a key, e.g.: command="hg-ssh --read-only repos/\*"

## BUGS

Probably lots, please post them to the mailing list (see Resources below) when you find them.

## SEE ALSO

[**hg**(1)](/hg/1.md)

## AUTHOR

Written by Olivia Mackall \<olivia@selenic.com\>

## RESOURCES

Main Web Site: https://mercurial-scm.org/

Source code repository: https://www.mercurial-scm.org/repo/hg

Mailing list: https://www.mercurial-scm.org/mailman/listinfo/mercurial/

## COPYING

Copyright (C) 2005-2016 Olivia Mackall. Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version.

## AUTHOR

Thomas Arendsen Hein \<thomas@intevation.de\>

Organization: Mercurial