Gitolite won't let server read repo

A note for my future self.

Summary: When adding a new production server to my cap deploy that will clone a repository from my gitolite server, First SSH into the gitolite server so the production server has the gitolite server in it’s trusted hosts file.

More detail:
A repository on my gitolite server wouldn’t allow a new server to read it. Cap Deploy failed with lines like:


failed: "sh -c 'git clone -q git@my.server.ip:myrepo.git ....


I couldn’t find any logs on the gitolite server to help. Whilst fault finding I read that gitolite replied to a standard SSH login with details about Repo’s you can access.

When I tried, I got the ssh untrusted host warning. Having added the host to my trusted hosts, my cap deploy worked fine.