Copyright (c) 2000 Ken Yap



ssh is a simple frontend for sshdos that gives you the config file

functionality of the Unix ssh. This functionality could be put into

sshdos but it would make the size of the executable larger. All that is

really needed is a program to read in the command line flags, then parse

a config file, make some subsitutions and finally exec sshdos.



For example, say the config file ssh.cfg contains this:



Host sourceforge

	Hostname project.sourceforge.net

	User programmer

	Cipher blowfish

	Term linux

	Keymap linux.kbd

	Mode 132x25



then you can run ssh like this:



	ssh sourceforge



and it will call sshdos like this:



	sshdos -c blowfish -t linux -k linux.kbd -m 132x25 programmer project.sourceforge.net



Like the Unix ssh, it reads options in this order: command line options,

user config file, and finally system config file. The first setting of

an option is the one that takes effect. Wildcards are allowed for the

Host lines, just like the Unix version.  Therefore the options should be

arranged from the most specific to the least specific.  So in the

previous example, we could override the cipher and user by



	ssh -c 3des writer sourceforge



and



	sshdos -c 3des writer project.sourceforge.net



is what gets executed.



The disadvantage of this approach is that if sshdos gets some new

options, then ssh has to be taught about them.



(I have made provision for the code to be a frontend for scp later. :-)



Ken Yap

ken_yap@xoommail.com

August 2000

