ssh wrapper scripts

[Andrew Smith]

Hello

This is an idea someone had that I thought of implementing, but I don't 
know whether I have the time. Regardless, I would only do it if you 
would include it with the OpenSSH distribution, so I would need to know 
your opinion.

OpenSSH is a very useful an very versatile tool. Not only a remote 
terminal - but also an FTP-like client/server, an app for copying files, 
an aid for port forwarding and tunneling.

For two of those features there are helper applications, little if 
anything more than wrappers: sftp and scp; that hide the complexity of 
the respective ssh commands. They achieve this by limiting the range of 
stuff that can be done (e.g. can't do much more than copy files with scp).

For port forwarding and tunneling there are no such helpers. I spent the 
saturday at an install fest where a 15-year (seriously) linux veteran 
was struggling to remember/find the ssh syntax for making a tunnel for 
more than 2 hours, giving up eventually.

It should be very easy (perhaps trivial) to make a script that makes 
this ordeal unnecessary. Pardon my ignorance, but something like: 
`sshforward 10000:20000`.

Do the OpenSSH developers have any interest in this?

Cheers,

Andrew