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unixgithubsshgitlab

ssh command -T option


I'm wondering what the -T option in the following command does, cannot see this option in the manual somehow:

$ ssh -T [email protected]
Welcome to GitLab, Simeon !

Could somebody explain?


Solution

  • I explained before what TTY was: a text terminal is needed when you open an interactive session to a remote server.

    But in the context of a remote Git repository hosting server (GitHub, Gitlab, BitBucket, ...), no remote server will ever allow you to open an interactive session (for security reasons).

    Then only reason why you would still use ssh -T [email protected] would be to test if you are correctly authenticated, and the session would immediately end with:

    Hi username!  You've successfully authenticated, 
    but GitHub does not provide shell access. 
    

    Since no tty is needed for that test, you should use the -T option when making this test.