openssh unix dev - Sep 2001 - adding a pause utility in the distribution

This is going to look silly, but I've seen it asked so many times that
I'm starting to think it should be included in the OpenSSH distribution.
People want to set up persistent tunnels without having to keep a shell
open.  The following program can be used with -f to do just that:

  #include <unistd.h>
  int main()
  {
    pause();
    return 0;
  }

Any chance of this making it into the OpenSSH distribution (and maybe
man page)?

Neale

On Fri, Sep 21, 2001 at 11:49:26AM -0700, Neale Pickett wrote:
> This is going to look silly, but I've seen it asked so many times that
> I'm starting to think it should be included in the OpenSSH
distribution.
> People want to set up persistent tunnels without having to keep a shell
> open.  The following program can be used with -f to do just that:
> 
>   #include <unistd.h>
>   int main()
>   {
>     pause();
>     return 0;
>   }
Yes, it does look kinda silly. :-) Users can always install similar apps 
on the target machine and do
 ssh me at otherhost /path/to/that/pause/app

Plus tunnels that go through NAT devices and stateful firewalls tend to 
collapse if there's no data, so your approach would not even be 
universally useful; some users might need something like
   #include <unistd.h>
   #include <string.h>
   int main()
   {
     while (1) {
       sleep(120);
       printf(".");
     }
     return 0;
   }
to maintain a tunnel. Since tunnel preservation techniques vary depending 
on the network configuration, IMO adding this sort of thing to OpenSSH 
doesn't sound like a great idea.

-Peter