topic Re: how to set ssh timeout in Operating System - Linux

how to set ssh timeout

K.C. Chan — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 14:13:22 GMT

All,
I am having trouble executing remote command via ssh because it takes a long time to timeout if for some reasons there is a network issue during the middle or initial login process. Is there an option to tell ssh to timeout after so many seconds has passed if I don't get a response from it? Thanks.

Re: how to set ssh timeout

Rick Garland — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 14:19:01 GMT

In the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file is a LoginGraceTime. On my system is commented out. You can put in a value and remember to stop/restart the ssh daemon after making the change.

Re: how to set ssh timeout

K.C. Chan — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 16:08:27 GMT

guys I am looking for something similar to rsync 's --timeout options. I am wondering if something like this is availabe with ssh from the client perspective. Thanks.

Re: how to set ssh timeout

Ermin Borovac — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 19:48:57 GMT

Two client side options introduced in ssh 3.8 may be what you are looking for.

ServerAliveInterval
ServerAliveCountMax

If ServerAliveInterval is set to 15 and ServerAliveCountMax is set to 3 and if the server becomes unresponsive ssh will disconnect after 45 seconds.

man ssh_config for more information (only on 3.8 or later).

Re: how to set ssh timeout

Fred Ruffet — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 05:11:12 GMT

Options given by Ermin are good. If you want to pass them onyour command line (no change to client default conf) you can use the -o option of the ssh command.

Regards,

Fred

Re: how to set ssh timeout

K.C. Chan — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 16:32:51 GMT

This looks good. But one thing that is not clear, does both end (sshd and ssh client) have to be at ssh version 3.8 and later?

Re: how to set ssh timeout

Ermin Borovac — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 19:27:45 GMT

From what I can see only client needs to be at 3.8 or higher.

To test it out you can do the following

client$ ssh -o ServerAliveInterval=15 -o ServerAliveCountMax=3 server

On the server find pid of sshd corresponding to this connection and send it STOP signal.

server# kill -STOP

Client should terminate connection after 45 seconds.