Bug#147201: Bug#345628: man page documents faulty default

[Justin Pryzby <justinpryzby@users.sourceforge.net>]

On Mon, Jan 02, 2006 at 05:03:44PM +0100, cobaco (aka Bart Cornelis) wrote:
> On Monday 02 January 2006 16:36, you wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 02, 2006 at 01:27:08PM +0200, cobaco (aka Bart Cornelis) 
> wrote:
> > > according to sshd_config(5) tels us that UsePAM defaults to 'no', yet a
> > > fresh install of openssh-server has this set to 'yes'
> >
> > #345628 is stronly related to #327886 and loosely related to #147201.
> >
> > It seems clear to me that the default values in ssh{,d}_config are NOT
> > the values encoded in the ssh{,d} binaries, 
> > and that the config files (and environment variables, and environment
> > variables) exist to override those defaults (or document the most
> > often-changed parameters).
> obviously (in hindsight)
> 
> > Perhaps there should be a section somewhere in ssh manpages section 1
> > and 5 to the effect of "this is the order of precedence of where
> > parameter values come from", and documenting the different places, I
> > don't know .. it wasn't entirely intuitive to me that I could have a
> > ~/.ssh/ssh_config, and I guess it would be nice if this had popped out
> > at me from somewhere other than the FILES section, one day when I had
> > reason to read the ssh manpage in entirety..
> 
> What suprised me is not the precedence order (that's clear to me, though 
> adding something about it won't hurt), but that the documentation doesn't 
> describe the out-of-the-box situation (i.e. even though I haven't changed 
> anything the documentation doesn't describe the actual situation)
> 
> So maybe add a section to the man-page saying something like 
> "the debian ssh package ships with the following non-default settings:
> - option A set to X
> - option B set to Y
Probably easier and more effective to add a line or two to the
conffiles /etc/ssh/ssh{d,}_config;

Instead of:

# Package generated configuration file

use

# This file overrides the internal defaults of the ssh{d,} executable.
# Environment variables and commandline arguments override the values
# here.

Would this satisfy your request?

-- 
Clear skies,
Justin