openssh bugs - Sep 2010 - [Bug 1815] New: RemoteCommand and PseudoTTY config options

https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1815

           Summary: RemoteCommand and PseudoTTY config options
           Product: Portable OpenSSH
           Version: 5.1p1
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P2
         Component: ssh
        AssignedTo: unassigned-bugs at mindrot.org
        ReportedBy: Vampire at Masters-of-Disaster.de


Created attachment 1918
  --> https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/attachment.cgi?id=1918
Patch to add RemoteCommand and PseudoTTY to openssh-5.1p1-6ubuntu2

Hi,

I'd like to have a RemoteCommand and PseudoTTY config option for
ssh_config. I have multiple use cases. One of them is e. g. connecting
to SourceForge. Of course I can do all that I can do with RemoteCommand
and PseudoTTY also with an alias or shell script, but I prefer to keep
my configuration in one place and that is the ssh config files. So to
connect to the SourceForge shell service you have to call "create"
first. Either you do this with "-t" and are logged into the newly
created shell immediately, or you do it without "-t" and can then
connect to the newly created shell with a new connection. So my
workaround for this case was to use the following ProxyCommand which is
not nice of course, but worked. For other use-cases I didn't find such
a work-around.

ProxyCommand sh -c "ssh -F /dev/null -C vampire0,jedit at shell.sf.net
create; nc %h %p"

With RemoteCommand and PseudoTTY this can be easily and cleanly
achieved by the following:

PseudoTTY yes
RemoteCommand create

As I'm currently still using Ubuntu Karmic which has OpenSSH 5.1p1
packaged I've put my ideas into the sources of that package. I've
created a patch-file of the changes I did and attached this here. It is
working fine for me up to now. I hope it can be used to adapt this to
the latest code also and to make clear how I mean and excpect this
feature. :-)

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https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1815

Damien Miller <djm at mindrot.org> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |djm at mindrot.org
             Status|NEW                         |RESOLVED
         Resolution|                            |FIXED

--- Comment #1 from Damien Miller <djm at mindrot.org> 2011-05-20 12:53:01
EST ---
OpenSSH 5.9 will have a RequestTTY option, but I don't think we need an
option to specify the command

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https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1815

Bj?rn "Vampire" Kautler <Vampire at Masters-of-Disaster.de>
changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|RESOLVED                    |REOPENED
         Resolution|FIXED                       |

--- Comment #2 from Bj?rn "Vampire" Kautler <Vampire at
Masters-of-Disaster.de> 2011-05-21 02:37:10 EST ---
May I ask why not?

This possibility proved to be veeery useful to me. I'm doing things
like the following with it:



config:

Host wbl
    RemoteCommand wakeonlan -f wol/bjkau-linux.wol

command to wake up my box remotely:

ssh wbl



config:

Host v2bl
    User root
    LocalForward 5900 localhost:5900
    RemoteCommand x11vnc -localhost -timeout 120 -display :0 -auth
/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth

command to start a secure remote x11vnc session:

ssh v2bl
vinagre localhost (or invoked via GUI)



config which would be possible without RemoteCommand but veeeeery ugly
like shown in the initial comment:

Host sf* shell.sf.net shell.sourceforge.net
    HostName shell.sourceforge.net
    RequestTTY yes
    RemoteCommand create

command to connect to SF Shell service:

ssh sfj



I would really miss this feature if it doesn't get added and always
building an own version with my patch is cumbersome. :-( I'd really
appreciate if this also gets added like suggested.

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Bert Wesarg <Bert.Wesarg at googlemail.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |Bert.Wesarg at googlemail.com

--- Comment #3 from Bert Wesarg <Bert.Wesarg at googlemail.com> 2011-05-22
04:07:30 EST ---
(In reply to comment #2)
> May I ask why not?
My personal opinion would be that this is a job for a script. And note
that this is even shorter to type:
> config:
> 
> Host v2bl
>     User root
>     LocalForward 5900 localhost:5900
>     RemoteCommand x11vnc -localhost -timeout 120 -display :0 -auth
> /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth
> 
> command to start a secure remote x11vnc session:
> 
> ssh v2bl
v2bl.sh:
#!/bin/sh
exec ssh v2bl -t x11vnc -localhost -timeout 120 -display :0
-auth
> /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth
command:
v2bl.sh

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--- Comment #4 from Bj?rn "Vampire" Kautler <Vampire at
Masters-of-Disaster.de> 2011-05-22 09:35:11 EST ---
Of course as script or alias it is shorter to type.
But I like to have this configuration there.
And those also were only examples, there are for sure other use-cases.
And hey, if someone doesn't want to use the feature he doesn't have to
and can still use scripts or aliases. :-)

While neither scripts nor aliases are portable.
The ssh config file I can also copy over to a Windows machine running
openssh and can immediately use it.
Aliases are not possible on Windoze and a script would have to be
rewritten as BAT script.

Besides that especially the SourceForge case does belong in that config
file logically as that "create" command is necessary to establish an
SSH connection to the SourceForge shell service. That is why it was my
example in the initial description.

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