Hi, in port knocking setups, it would be great to have the possibility to execute a shell command before the ssh connection is actually initiated. That way, one could configure ssh like host foo hostname foo.bar.example user baz pre-connect knock foo.bar.example 1234 5678 and transparently initiate the connection by saying ssh foo. ssh would then first invoke the knock process and then initiate the actual ssh connection. This can currently be implemented by using something along the lines of proxycommand sh -c 'knock <knock params>; sleep 1; exec socket %h %p' but I find this ugly and unintuitive. Please consider implementing the more straight-forward direct approach. Greetings Marc -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | lose things." Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 621 72739835