From cf9e8e41c93939ada6b553edffa350ccd0f6a76f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Daniel Kahn Gillmor Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:12:54 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] added comment to ssh-proxycommand quiet option discussion. --- ...ysphere-ssh-proxycommand-quiet-option.mdwn | 38 +++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 38 insertions(+) diff --git a/website/bugs/monkeysphere-ssh-proxycommand-quiet-option.mdwn b/website/bugs/monkeysphere-ssh-proxycommand-quiet-option.mdwn index 46d6e43..c139f7e 100644 --- a/website/bugs/monkeysphere-ssh-proxycommand-quiet-option.mdwn +++ b/website/bugs/monkeysphere-ssh-proxycommand-quiet-option.mdwn @@ -126,3 +126,41 @@ In any event, I just want to outline a straightforward policy about output so we can know how to best handle it. -- Big Jimmy. + +----- + +I think it's important to be able to suppress "normal operation, +everything is fine" messages *without* directing stderr to +`/dev/null`. This is the normal state of UNIX-style tools, especially +tools like SSH which are used as piece of a larger toolchain. If +every tool in a toolchain emitted some output during successful +operation, many scripts would be hopeless seas of noise, as it's not +unusual for even a simple backup script to make use of a half-dozen +separate tools. + +What you really want is to see some output from when a tool knows +something is wrong. With the proxycommand, the job of complaining +will often be left up to `ssh` itself, after `~/.ssh/known_hosts` has +been appropriately modified. But sometimes, the proxycommand itself +will fail, and if you've already directed stderr to `/dev/null` you +won't get any reasonable information about the failure at the time it +happens. + +As for the interface to adjust the verbosity, HRH SJJ's current +proposal with a large number of environment variables seems confusing +and overly-complex to me. + +i think we should follow OpenSSH's lead (since all monkeysphere users +are likely to be somewhat familiar with it) and use a single variable +that is set to a level. For example, see `LogLevel` in +`ssh_config(5)`. It should probably default to `INFO`, same as +`/usr/bin/ssh`. If there was a way to extract this value from the +user's SSH configuration/invocation itself and adopt it in the +ProxyCommand, that would be even better, but i don't think that's a +possibility with OpenSSH 5.1p1 at this point. + +Also, i agree with HRH SJJ that the distinction in the monkeysphere +source between `log` and `loge` is unclear, and one of them should be +dropped (or they should be better-documented in `/src/common`). + + --dkg -- 2.25.1