how to set ssh timeout

[K.C. Chan]

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.

[Rick Garland]

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.

[K.C. Chan]

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.

[Ermin Borovac]

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).

[Fred Ruffet]

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

[K.C. Chan]

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?

[Ermin Borovac · Accepted solution]

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.