ssh-copy-id doesn't work when LogLevel=Quiet (Patch included)

[Oscar Roozen]

This is a simple patch to a simple problem that took me some time to
find. I had set LogLevel=Quiet on a group of hosts to mute some output
in scripts. In hindsight, this was a stupid decision. I could have used
LogLevel=Error just as well. When later trying to script something using
ssh-copy-id, it would insist the key was already there. Yet scp kept
prompting for a passord...

Turns out ssh-copy-id relies on the output of ssh to determine whether
the key is already in place. No error => key already there. Loglevel
Quiet => key already there. Haha.. Fooled me! ;-)

The fix is simple. If ssh-copy-id needs an error output, it should force
this output to be there, independent of other configurations:

(Patch against openssh-clients-6.9p1-9.fc22.x86_64 on a Fedora system)

--- /usr/bin/ssh-copy-id.org 2016-01-05 13:45:08.551829298 +0100
+++ /usr/bin/ssh-copy-id 2016-01-05 12:28:28.537612334 +0100
@@ -216,6 +216,7 @@
# find if only given the contents of the .pub file in an
# unrelated tmpfile
ssh -i "${PRIV_ID_FILE:-$L_TMP_ID_FILE}" \
-o PreferredAuthentications=publickey \
+ -o LogLevel=Error \
-o IdentitiesOnly=yes "$@" exit 2>$L_TMP_ID_FILE.stderr
</dev/null
if [ "$?" = "$L_SUCCESS" ] ; then
: > $L_TMP_ID_FILE

[Jakub Jelen]

Post by Oscar Roozen
(Patch against openssh-clients-6.9p1-9.fc22.x86_64 on a Fedora system)
--- /usr/bin/ssh-copy-id.org 2016-01-05 13:45:08.551829298 +0100
+++ /usr/bin/ssh-copy-id 2016-01-05 12:28:28.537612334 +0100
@@ -216,6 +216,7 @@
# find if only given the contents of the .pub file in an
# unrelated tmpfile
ssh -i "${PRIV_ID_FILE:-$L_TMP_ID_FILE}" \
-o PreferredAuthentications=publickey \
+ -o LogLevel=Error \
</dev/null
if [ "$?" = "$L_SUCCESS" ] ; then
: > $L_TMP_ID_FILE

Hello Oscar,
this is already fixed in ssh-copy-id repo [1], has even it's own
upstream bugzilla [2]. It is also in current Fedora 23 [3]. You can get
it even for your Fedora 22 from copr repo [4], if you are interested and
you want to try if it works for you.

[1]
http://git.hands.com/?p=ssh-copy-id.git;a=commit;h=35f05e39cda8670b3f6797330a3e521fda509a4c
[2] https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2214
[3] https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2015-8e6294b5c2
[4] https://copr.fedoraproject.org/coprs/jjelen/openssh-latest/

Regards,