From: Damien Miller Subject: Re: ssh-add: print error "The agent has no identities." to stderr instead of stdout To: David Leadbeater Cc: noodle@pastanoggin.com, tech@openbsd.org Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2025 11:26:31 +1100 On Mon, 10 Nov 2025, David Leadbeater wrote: > On Sun, 9 Nov 2025 at 08:34, wrote: > [...] > > Other similar errors in the ssh-add.c log to stderr so it's safe to > > align this printf too. > > Many people rely on this being on stdout, I would not say this is safe. > > For example, just a sample of dotfiles and such that it's trivial to > search with GitHub: > https://github.com/search?q=%2Fgrep+%28%3F%3A-.+%29%3F.%3FThe.agent.has.no.ident%2F&type=code > (To save clicking, 437 matches, some do redirect stderr, but most don't.) Yeah, checking exit status is reliable too. 0 = identities found, 1 = no identities, 2 = couldn't communicate with agent / other error. -d