openssh unix dev - Jan 2013 - ssh-copy-id enhancement 2013-01-01

I and others have enjoyed using the ssh-copy-id script for most systems,
but when port numbers on target systems are changed it goes from being
trivial to use to requiring a decent knowledge of how to set target ports
on the client side in other ways (for example, ~/.ssh/config or something
like that).  Since these cases are the exception it'd be nice if
ssh-copy-id could handle alternate ports from the calling command like
'ssh' and 'scp' (and others) do.  To this end I am attaching a
unified-diff
file with changes that implement this.  I've done basic testing on systems
both with and without alternate ports and believe it works fairly well.

For the forum thread that started all of this (finally convinced me to fix
it for myself too) see the following from openSUSE, if interested:
http://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php?t=481944

I built this against the ssh-copy-id file in ./openssh/contrib from cvs,
though the script exactly matches (compared via checksum) the one that
openSUSE 12.2 ships as well.  I also attached the modified script just in
case I somehow unified-diff'd incorrectly (I'm not a programmer by
trade;
it's possible/likely I fouled something up).

Happy New Year,
Aaron Burgemeister

On 01/01/13 16:39, Aaron Burgemeister wrote:
> I and others have enjoyed using the ssh-copy-id script for most systems,
> but when port numbers on target systems are changed it goes from being
> trivial to use to requiring a decent knowledge of how to set target ports
> on the client side in other ways (for example, ~/.ssh/config or something
> like that).  Since these cases are the exception it'd be nice if
> ssh-copy-id could handle alternate ports from the calling command like
> 'ssh' and 'scp' (and others) do.  To this end I am
attaching a unified-diff
> file with changes that implement this.  I've done basic testing on
systems
> both with and without alternate ports and believe it works fairly well.
>
> For the forum thread that started all of this (finally convinced me to fix
> it for myself too) see the following from openSUSE, if interested:
> http://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php?t=481944
>
> I built this against the ssh-copy-id file in ./openssh/contrib from cvs,
> though the script exactly matches (compared via checksum) the one that
> openSUSE 12.2 ships as well.  I also attached the modified script just in
> case I somehow unified-diff'd incorrectly (I'm not a programmer by
trade;
> it's possible/likely I fouled something up).
>
> Happy New Year,
> Aaron Burgemeister
Happy New Year, Aaron.

The mailing list stripped your attachment (not sent with a text/plain
mimetype ?), but it's
probably the one at
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/network-internet/481944-cant-connect-thru-ssh-port-54545-any-port-other-than-default.html#post2514812

I recommend you to send it as a unified diff. It looks good, but I would
have added the new option it *before* the host name.

Interestingly, you can make ssh-copy-id work with a non-standard port by
abusing the hostname field:
>  $ ssh-copy-id "-p 54545 apogee at apogee.suse.lst"