Description: Various keepalive extensions Add compatibility aliases for ProtocolKeepAlives and SetupTimeOut, supported in previous versions of Debian's OpenSSH package but since superseded by ServerAliveInterval. (We're probably stuck with this bit for compatibility.) . In batch mode, default ServerAliveInterval to five minutes. . Adjust documentation to match and to give some more advice on use of keepalives. Author: Richard Kettlewell Author: Ian Jackson Author: Matthew Vernon Author: Colin Watson Last-Update: 2010-02-27 Index: b/readconf.c =================================================================== --- a/readconf.c +++ b/readconf.c @@ -138,6 +138,7 @@ oTunnel, oTunnelDevice, oLocalCommand, oPermitLocalCommand, oVisualHostKey, oUseRoaming, oZeroKnowledgePasswordAuthentication, oKexAlgorithms, oIPQoS, + oProtocolKeepAlives, oSetupTimeOut, oDeprecated, oUnsupported } OpCodes; @@ -258,6 +259,8 @@ #endif { "kexalgorithms", oKexAlgorithms }, { "ipqos", oIPQoS }, + { "protocolkeepalives", oProtocolKeepAlives }, + { "setuptimeout", oSetupTimeOut }, { NULL, oBadOption } }; @@ -888,6 +891,8 @@ goto parse_flag; case oServerAliveInterval: + case oProtocolKeepAlives: /* Debian-specific compatibility alias */ + case oSetupTimeOut: /* Debian-specific compatibility alias */ intptr = &options->server_alive_interval; goto parse_time; @@ -1336,8 +1341,13 @@ options->rekey_limit = 0; if (options->verify_host_key_dns == -1) options->verify_host_key_dns = 0; - if (options->server_alive_interval == -1) - options->server_alive_interval = 0; + if (options->server_alive_interval == -1) { + /* in batch mode, default is 5mins */ + if (options->batch_mode == 1) + options->server_alive_interval = 300; + else + options->server_alive_interval = 0; + } if (options->server_alive_count_max == -1) options->server_alive_count_max = 3; if (options->control_master == -1) Index: b/ssh_config.5 =================================================================== --- a/ssh_config.5 +++ b/ssh_config.5 @@ -127,8 +127,12 @@ If set to .Dq yes , passphrase/password querying will be disabled. +In addition, the +.Cm ServerAliveInterval +option will be set to 300 seconds by default. This option is useful in scripts and other batch jobs where no user -is present to supply the password. +is present to supply the password, +and where it is desirable to detect a broken network swiftly. The argument must be .Dq yes or @@ -1058,8 +1062,15 @@ will send a message through the encrypted channel to request a response from the server. The default -is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the server. +is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the server, +or 300 if the +.Cm BatchMode +option is set. This option applies to protocol version 2 only. +.Cm ProtocolKeepAlives +and +.Cm SetupTimeOut +are Debian-specific compatibility aliases for this option. .It Cm StrictHostKeyChecking If this flag is set to .Dq yes , @@ -1098,6 +1109,12 @@ other side. If they are sent, death of the connection or crash of one of the machines will be properly noticed. +This option only uses TCP keepalives (as opposed to using ssh level +keepalives), so takes a long time to notice when the connection dies. +As such, you probably want +the +.Cm ServerAliveInterval +option as well. However, this means that connections will die if the route is down temporarily, and some people find it annoying. Index: b/sshd_config.5 =================================================================== --- a/sshd_config.5 +++ b/sshd_config.5 @@ -1034,6 +1034,9 @@ .Pp To disable TCP keepalive messages, the value should be set to .Dq no . +.Pp +This option was formerly called +.Cm KeepAlive . .It Cm TrustedUserCAKeys Specifies a file containing public keys of certificate authorities that are trusted to sign user certificates for authentication.