[PATCH]: contrib/cygwin/README

[Corinna Vinschen]

Hi,

I have a small patch here which changes the Cygwin README file so
that the following fact is mentioned.

OpenSSH never uses $HOME to search for user config files but the
value in the pw_dir field in /etc/passwd.

This might be of minor interest for generic U*X folks but that's
an important fact for Cygwin users. When /etc/passwd is automatically
created under WinNT/2K it uses the values in the NT user datebase
to determine the home directory of the user. Actually, it's an
completely unimportant entry for NT itself. If the home directory
isn't set NT uses a default value. Unfortunately this often results
in a wrong pw_dir entry in /etc/passwd. So at least the documentation
should make that fact somewhat clear to the user.

I wonder if it is worth to mention this somehow in the man pages.
While in most cases $HOME reflects the pw_dir field, a user could
set it's $HOME to /tmp and then he is surprised that his config
files in /tmp aren't used. Ok, it might be a theoretical case but
you'll never know.

Index: README
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/openssh_cvs/contrib/cygwin/README,v
retrieving revision 1.3
diff -u -p -r1.3 README
--- README	2001/03/07 10:38:19	1.3
+++ README	2001/03/14 20:52:59
@@ -111,6 +111,12 @@ You'll have to decide before starting ss
      
     RSAAuthentication yes
 
+Please note that OpenSSH does never use the value of $HOME to
+search for the users configuration files! It always uses the
+value of the pw_dir field in /etc/passwd as the home directory.
+If no home diretory is set in /etc/passwd, the root directory
+is used instead!
+
 You may use all features of the CYGWIN=ntsec setting the same
 way as they are used by the `login' port on sources.redhat.com:
 
@@ -129,10 +135,10 @@ way as they are used by the `login' port
 
     locuser::1104:513:John Doe,U-user,S-1-5-21-...
 
-V2 server and user keys are generated by `ssh-config'. If you want to
-create DSA keys by yourself, call ssh-keygen with `-d' option.
+SSH2 server and user keys are generated by the `ssh-*-config' scripts
+as well.
 
-DSA authentication similar to RSA:
+SSH2 authentication similar to SSH1:
     Add keys to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2
 Interop. w/ ssh.com dsa-keys:
     ssh-keygen -f /key/from/ssh.com -X >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2


Thanks,
Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen
Cygwin Developer
Red Hat, Inc.
mailto:vinschen at redhat.com