openssh continues to process dash arguements after hostname

[Mark Andrews]

> On Wed, Apr 28, 2004 at 10:03:52AM +1000, Mark Andrews wrote:
> > 
> > Processing dash arguments after the hostname is inconsistant with 
> > getopt() usage.  It is also inconsistant with other ssh/rsh 
> > implementations.  It is also not documented.
> > 
> > openssh accepts treats "ssh host -l user" as "ssh -l user host"
> > when infact it should be attemption to execute "-l user" on "host"
> > as the original user.
> > 
> > It looks like someone wanted to be "compatible" with Linux's
> > broken getopt() implementation.
> 
> no.
> 
> original ssh tried to be compatible with rlogin,
> and since hundreds of scripts may rely on the
> current behaviour...

	So because you fail to fix a bug other bugs fail to get
	fixed.  You then get to the stage where when you report bad
	command line generation, because you happen to also use a
	implemtation that enforces the ssh command line, it gets
	knocked back with "it works with my ssh".

	Yes that happened when I reported a bug in CVS to FreeBSD.
	I also reported it to the CVS maintainers who accepted the
	bug report so it will eventually make it into FreeBSD.

	I long ago found out that supporting broken callers is
	actually more work that that generated by handling the few
	bug reports that come through when you fix the broken
	behaviour.

	Mark
--
Mark Andrews, ISC
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark_Andrews at isc.org