known_hosts, IP, and port revisited

[Gregory Seidman]

On Thu, Dec 18, 2003 at 08:37:11AM -0600, Ben Lindstrom wrote:
} 
} Please discuss why:
} 
}      HostKeyAlias
}              Specifies an alias that should be used instead of the real
}              host name when looking up or saving the host key in the host
}              key database files.  This option is useful for tunneling ssh
}              connec- tions or for multiple servers running on a single
}              host.
} 
} No one has yet explain why it does not work outside of.. "It is not what
} I expect"

How about "it isn't user-friendly"? A user makes a connection to an ssh
server by host and, optionally, IP address. Requiring that every time there
is another server on a host a user has to add to his/her config file, then
remember whatever alias s/he chose is user-hostile. It's even worse than
that, because that config change has to be performed on every account from
which the user might be ssh-ing.

I'll grant you that the functionality is there, but a minor
backward-compatible change can make it transparent to the user.

} - Ben
--Greg