[PATCH] Add scp -1 and -2 options to OpenSSH-3.0.2p1

[David Terrell]

On Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 12:26:48PM +0100, Markus Friedl wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 11:55:03AM +0100, Wichert Akkerman wrote:
> > Previously Markus Friedl wrote:
> > > why do you need -1 and -2?
> > 
> > Users want it, and it's very useful in situations where you need
> > to specifiy the version due to existing keys, old servers, etc.
> 
> hm, should there be an extra option for 0.0001% of all
> use cases.

I use -1, -2 -4 and -6 all the time.  Well, mostly -4 and -1 these days.

scp implies ssh.  (In theory, yes, it can use any 8 bit clean
transport, but in practice it implies ssh.  If you really want to
use this protocol over any transport, use rcmd(3) on a platform
that lets you specify $RCMD).

-o strikes me as mostly useless.  If you're going to specify the
long names and be familiar with them, then you might as well put
them in .ssh/config and save yourself the typing.  Most of the
things that need overriding on the command line have their own
options on the ssh command line which the user is more familiar
with than the long (-o) option.

So why not provide a single facility (call it -O perhaps) that
passes optarg to the transport program on the command line, with
simple whitespace splicing?  

scp -O '-4 -1' pianosa.catch22.org:/etc/motd .

This gives users the convenience of the ssh short options without
further bloating the scp command line, and is even little enough
fuss that eventually you can kill -4 and -i and whatnot from scp.

-- 
David Terrell            | "Consumerism is neat."
dbt at meat.net             |         - Brian Swetland
http://wwn.nebcorp.com/  |