openssh unix dev - Dec 2000 - ssh 2.3.0p1 does not seem to fallback protocol from 2 to 1

Hi, I have the following line in $HOME/.ssh/config

Protocol 2,1

I run OpenSSH 2.3.0p1 on my RH 7.0 box running 2.2.18.
I am trying to ssh into a FreeBSD 4.2-stable box which runs OpenSSH
2.2.0. The account I am trying to ssh into has two files in $HOME/.ssh

authorized_keys and authorized_key2 which contains RSA and DSA keys
respectively. 
>From my RH 7.0 machine, I do the following
ssh -v <targethost> and it gets me in via DSA key

Then I rename authorized_keys2 on remote machine to ak_2 and do the
same thing. OpenSSH 2.3.0 tries to connect via DSA key and when it
can't find the key prompts me for the remote users password.

I would have expected it to use the RSA key instead to log me in.

Is there something I might have missed

Regards, Yusuf

-- 
Yusuf Goolamabbas
yusufg at outblaze.com

On Thu, Dec 21, 2000 at 08:03:55AM -0000, Yusuf Goolamabbas
wrote:
> I would have expected it to use the RSA key instead to log me in.
> 
> Is there something I might have missed
yes. your expectations are wrong :)

'Protocol 2,1' means:

try to start speak the protocol 2 to the ssh server.
if the server does not speak protocol 2, then fallback
to protocol 1.

you did expect: connect with protocol 2 if possible
if authentication fails for some specific method (DSA in your case),
don't even try other methods (like passwd) but reconnect
with protocol 1 and try RSA auth for example.

this will never work.

the fallback is for about: what protocol do i speak to the
server. once you have chosen a protocol and started speaking
it's impossible to change the protocol.

hope this makes things clear.

-markus