August 21, 2003
Conflict in SSH Installations
I've used SSH for years. I used to use SSH Communications SSH client and server. As with all software I install that I don't want to re-install every time I upgrade to a newer Linux distribution I put it in /usr/local. Once OpenSSH became a standard feature in Slackware, I completely forgot about the old SSH stuff and it never seemed to have caused any problems.
Until now.
I have been using SCP a lot lately to transfer files between my home computer and the server on which my website is hosted. This has worked well except when copying a file from the server to home computer by executing scp at the server's command line. I was getting this error:
scp: warning: Executing scp1 compatibility.
scp: FATAL: Executing ssh1 in compatibility mode failed (Check that scp1 is in your PATH).
lost connection
I scratched my head about this for a while. The mention of "SCP1" pointed me to that old installation of the commercial SSH in /usr/local which, I thought, should not have been used by OpenSSH's SSH daemon. Just to be safe, however, I deleted the old binaries, and voil�, the problem was solved.
It appears that OpenSSH was, in fact, attempting to use the old SSH binaries to perform SCP operations. This was possibly caused by /usr/local/bin being listed before /usr/bin in the PATH.
As usual, this was a fun exercise. Not only was I happy to get SCP working properly in both directions, but I also realized how much junk I really have in /usr/local. Perhaps now would be a good time to re-format that partition and re-install the latest versions of the stuff in there I actually still use.
Time Travel
I don't think I will ever use a time travel device.
I remember thinking to myself years ago that if I ever could, I would come back and visit myself when I was young. Since I haven't met myself from the future, I have come to the conclusion that I will never be a time traveler.
On second thought, there is the possibility that I WILL travel back in time, but to will decide to avoid making contact with myself to prevent the occurance of a paradox. Therefore, I cannot conclude that I will never travel through time.
These things keep me awake at night.
