[[!comment format=mdwn username="joey" subject="""comment 3""" date="2016-10-26T19:55:18Z" content=""" On the ssh config, one way to do it is to pass -F with a config file that git-annex generates. It could look like: Include ~/.ssh/config Include /etc/ssh/ssh_config ServerAliveInterval 60 Since ssh uses the first config setting it sees, if `~/.ssh/config` or `/etc/ssh/ssh_config` set a ServerAliveInterval that one will be used, and otherwise the value git-annex sets will be used. But.. Ssh enables TCPKeepAlive by default. You'd think that would be enough to detect this kind of problem. There do seem to be reasons for users to disable TCPKeepAlive; perhaps it causes annoying disconnects when there's a minor hiccough, or a firewall does not support it. If the problem is that users are disabling TCPKeepAlive, then having git-annex enable ServerAliveInterval makes sense. Ok; implemented this. """]]