bundled openssh version

[Björn König]

Dan Mahoney, System Admin wrote:

> Is freeBSD ever going to update the "contributed" version of openssh to 
> something more recent?

Yes. Currently OpenSSH 4.1p1 is part of 6-CURRENT developent branch. An 
update in 5-STABLE may happen, but not regulary and not definitely. I 
strongly believe that 3.5p1 of 4-STABLE will remain forever.

> I'm particularly interested in the DNS SSHFP support,

It should work with OpenSSH of the base system as far as I know.

> and I'm unsure of the differences between the "base" version, 
> the one in ports, and the "portable" version in ports, as far as what 
> functionality I would gain/lose.

The OpenBSD team develops OpenSSH for their operating system. Since this 
  piece of software won't run on other systems without huge patches they 
offer a portable version of OpenSSH. I don't know the differences in 
detail, because I neither use OpenSSH in that excessive manner nor OpenBSD.

A slightly changed portable OpenSSH 3.8.1p1 comes along with the FreeBSD 
base system. The "p" indicates that this is the portable version. You'll 
find a list of these small changes in 
/usr/src/crypto/openssh/FREEBSD-upgrade[1].

The port security/openssh-portable is the most recent OpenSSH 4.1p1. If 
you want to know the FreeBSD-specific changes then the patches in 
/usr/ports/security/openssh-portable/files/ might be helpful.

security/openssh is a patched OpenSSH 3.6.1 of the non-portable version; 
I think this port falled asleep.

The Changelog[2] gives hints about the functionality that you will gain 
with a newer version. I'm not sure, but I guess you lose almost nothing 
if you choose the latest.

[1] http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/crypto/openssh/
[2] ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/OpenSSH/portable/ChangeLog

Regards
Björn