[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="bremner"
 ip="156.34.79.193"
 subject="ssh://gitolite-host/repo-name is supposed to work"
 date="2011-12-31T03:34:17Z"
 content="""
I confirmed with Sitaram that this is intentional, if probably under-documented.
Since the ADC strips the leading /~/ in assigning $start anyway, I guess something like the following will  work 
<pre>

diff --git a/contrib/adc/git-annex-shell b/contrib/adc/git-annex-shell
index 7f9f5b8..523dfed 100755
--- a/contrib/adc/git-annex-shell
+++ b/contrib/adc/git-annex-shell
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ my $cmd=$ENV{SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND};
 # the second parameter.
 # Further parameters are not validated here (see below).
 die \"bad git-annex-shell command: $cmd\"
-    unless $cmd =~ m#^(git-annex-shell '\w+' ')/\~/([0-9a-zA-Z][0-9a-zA-Z._\@/+-
+    unless $cmd =~ m#^(git-annex-shell '\w+' ')/(?:\~\/)?([0-9a-zA-Z][0-9a-zA-Z.
 my $start = $1;
 my $repo = $2;
 my $end = $3;
</pre>
"""]]