IdentityFile vs IdentitiesOnly

[Harald Dunkel]

Hi folks,

I've got a moderate number of keys in my ssh config file.
Problem: Very often I get an error message like

Received disconnect from 2001:db8::8077 port 999:2: Too many authentication failures
Authentication failed.

AFAIU the ssh-agent is to blame here, trying out all keys
he has ever seen. This conflicts with MaxAuthTries 6, set by
default on the peer.

The solution seems to be to set IdentitiesOnly, e.g.:

	:
	:
	Host host.example.com 2001:db8::8077
		IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa
		IdentitiesOnly yes
		Port 999
	:
	:

Shouldn't an explicit IdentityFile (as in the example) *imply*
IdentitiesOnly?


Every helpful comment is highly appreciated
Harri