Could someone please explain why use of ssh-askpass is mandatory? Specifically, if the fork() to ssh-askpass fails, why does ssh not fall back to asking for the password itself? It appears that use of ssh-askpass was configurable at one point - would you be willing to accept a patch if I generated one? Thanks, Tim -- Tim Strobell, Assistant Systems Administrator syssys at math.umd.edu Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland Tel (301)405-8175 Mail: 1301 Math Bldg, College Park, MD 20742-4015 Fax (301)314-0827