I am writing "HOW-TO install and integrate ssh on Mac OS X" ... (Where can I publish it?)

[Robert]

Am 01.12.2003 um 17:23 schrieb Sean O'Malley:

> You will want the ability to change it, because Apple has a nifty way 
> of
> changing stuff between versions that breaks things on occasion.
>
I am planning to stay with my Mac, since I am perfectly happy with her.

I have DSL for two days now and I am intending to use OpenSSH, since it 
turned out to be a practical way to keep my doors into the system open. 
I have read "SSH Secure Shell" from Barrett et al., O'REILLY and I 
belong to the kind of Mac enthusiast who knows about the need for 
security.

I use OS X since the early days of the Developer Preview (Release 4) 
but I didn't come to know about ssh since I saw the book in the shelf 
of our local bookshop. some months ago and I didn't have a real need 
for ssh, too ( Well, at least  didn't know that I might have  a need 
for it ).

I installed ssh on Jaguar and Panther and noticed that there were 
differences in the invocation of the daemon, but the mechanism isn't 
too different in my eyes.

Planning to use Mac OS for at least as long as my G4/866 doesn't work 
fast enough with forthcoming os revisions, I plan to maintain the HOWTO 
document and keep it up to date.

The documents content is not much about how to configure sshd.config ( 
I only use public key authentification in my example). I expect the 
reader to know about how to customize OpenSSH for it's personal needs. 
But the manual pages are at least sufficient for that task). The book I 
was talking about on top of this e-mail on the other hand is more than 
this, it is an excellent documentation IMHO. Do you agree? I'm more 
focusing on integrating ssh(d) into Mac OS X without deleting Apples 
implementation, so you can use your own OpenSSH compile and control its 
status (available or off)  within System Preferences. Either it is 
"Startup documents" or xinetd Apple uses and if Apple decide to switch 
that later to something different, I will shure see and report how to 
use that in a revised edition of my HOWTO.

So you see I am interested to use OpenSSH on my Mac with the same ease 
as I use other programs on OS X. And the similarity (well, almost, but 
I mean that) of the OpenSSH software implementation on my SuSE Linux is 
a fine way for me to maintain the same authentication and encryption 
software with a minimum of hazzle.

In addition of having something to play on my desktop (SuSE and my Mac) 
I a got an additional benefit by having a way to remotely control my 
computers over the internet when I am on hollidays ( well, my DSL 
doesn't work as it should yet, I have lots of problems, lost 
connection, access denials but thats a different story. My DSL 
connection is only a few days old. ) but I just switched my focus 
towards networking and client server interaction (Apache together with 
PHP and some cosmetic stuff (JavaScript, CSS) gives a fine interface 
for web based databases.  There is more to come :)

One additional question do I have: Do I explicitly have to state that I 
will not pay any money, if the reader and user of this HOWTO fails in 
installing OpenSSH and ruins his Mac? ((Or in the case that a 
vulnerability in ssh(d) will be exploited and used by criminals? We are 
all humans and mistakes simply can be made)) Or is this part of some 
open source license I can put the document under? Please suggest one, 
if appropriate I would suggest the same open source license, OpenSSH is 
under.

I will close now in the spirit of this sentence: "Use my HOWTO, if you 
are shure it helps you. If you are not shure, please don't use it. At 
least ask someone who knows. Better ask more than one person. Ask in 
the appropriate newsgroup."

Thank you for your time and attention,
Yours, sincerely
Robert Welz