[Bug 1716] New: tty allocation is not properly documented

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https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1716

           Summary: tty allocation is not properly documented
           Product: Portable OpenSSH
           Version: 5.3p1
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P2
         Component: ssh
        AssignedTo: unassigned-bugs at mindrot.org
        ReportedBy: vincent at vinc17.org


It seems that by default (i.e. without -t or -T ssh option), tty
allocation is done only when one doesn't provide a command. If the user
provides a command, no tty allocation occurs by default:

ypig:~> ssh localhost echo \$TERM

ypig:~> ssh -t localhost echo \$TERM
xterm-debian
Connection to localhost closed.

This behavior is not documented in the ssh/sshd man pages.

In the ssh man page, I can only see:

  If a pseudo-terminal has been allocated (normal login session), the
  user may use the escape characters noted below.

but this is very ambiguous (what is a "normal login session"?). Also, I
wonder whether there's a difference between "pseudo-tty" and
"pseudo-terminal"; the man page should be consistent.

The sshd man page has:

  command="command"
    Specifies that the command is executed whenever this key is used
    for authentication.  The command supplied by the user (if any) is
    ignored.  The command is run on a pty if the client requests a
    pty; otherwise it is run without a tty. [...]

but this is just documentation about command="...".

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