Re: Sending SSH_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST as keep-alive to the client

[nisse%lysator.liu.se@localhost (Niels Möller)]

Chris Lonvick <clonvick%cisco.com@localhost> writes:

> I didn't see any responses to this.  Does anyone have any objection to
> this being included?

The proposed text is a little too verbose for my taste, but I agree
with its contents.

> >   Note that, while this document defines only request messages sent
> >   by client to server, a server MAY also send global requests to the client.
> >   Such request types may be defined by an external specification, by
> >   local convention or may be sent with merely the intention of eliciting
> >   a response in order to validate that a session is still active. A client
> >   MUST gracefully handle unrecognized global requests by ignoring
> >   them and sending an SSH_MSG_REQUEST_FAILURE response.

An attempt at a more concise description:

"Note that both client and server MAY send global requests, and the
 receiver MUST respond appropriately."

This sentence can be added to section "4.  Global Requests", either at
the end of the section, or at the end of the first paragraph.

I think it important to make it clear that both ends may send these
requests, if that isn't clear already. But I don't think we really
need spend a lot of words to explain why that is useful, or provide
motivating but non-standard examples.

Regards,
/Niels