hang on exit

[Michael]

<snip>
> i sent this patch to so people can test whether discarding data
> would indeed help for the hang-on-exit problem, so that we can
> decide whether we do this by default. this would match the telnetd
> behaviour, but sshd != telnetd, and i really don't like the idea of
> loosing data.
> 

Loosing data is much preferable to having the clients/users broken or 
inappropriately coded process screw up the host server. The sysadm 
should be the one making the decision about whether or not the sshd 
daemon is allowed to hang "forever" if the user/client invokes a 
broken program, not the user/client who is generally half brain dead 
anyway. This solution may not be "ideal", but it is what works and 
what is necessary in a real world environment where not everything is 
perfect.

The argument is really one about "perfect" solutions, not what works. 
Lets get back to the real world and produce code that works as it is 
expected to, not what would be great in a lab or test environment. 
It's not necessary for the default behavior to throw away data, but 
it would be nice to have the choice and the ability to keep the 
host platform free of zombie sshd's from brain dead users.

BTW, the linux box is still sitting there if you want to test your 
code there.

Michael
Michael at Insulin-Pumpers.org