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dbclient(1)

small SSH client

Package: dropbear, added for amigaux.

Also by this name: ssh(1), General commands

dbclient, ssh - small SSH client

dbclient [ -tTNfgyz ] [ -p port ] [ -i keyfile ] ... [ -L forward ] [ -R forward ] [ -l user ] [user@]host[^port] [ command ]
dbclient [ options ] [user@]host1,[user@]host2,...

dbclient logs in to host over SSH, version 2, and runs command there, or a login shell when no command is given. It is also installed as ssh, the name other programs call (rsync's -e, for one); its options are its own, not OpenSSH's. It is the client of the Dropbear SSH programs; see dropbear(8). It offers the same algorithms as the server (see ALGORITHMS in dropbear(8)), so it talks to any SSH server of the last ten years. Of a server's host keys it asks for the RSA one (rsa-sha2-256) first, which is ten times cheaper to verify on this machine than ed25519, and then the ed25519 one.

It authenticates with a key first, then with a password. The keys it tries are ~/.ssh/id_dropbear and those given with -i; make one with dropbearkey(1).

At the first connection to a host it shows the host key's fingerprint and asks whether to trust it; the key is then kept in ~/.ssh/known_hosts, and a later connection whose host key differs is refused.

Run command on the remote host with the user's shell. The command starts at the first argument after host that is not an option.
Connect to port (default 22); also written host^port.
Use the key in keyfile, a key in Dropbear's format as dropbearkey(1) makes it. May be given more than once.
Forward the local port lport through the connection to host:port.
Forward the remote port rport through the connection to host:port here.
Log in as user; also written user@host.
Allocate a terminal (the default without a command).
No terminal (the default with a command).
Run no command; for port forwarding.
Go into the background after logging in (needs a command or -N).
Let other hosts connect to forwarded ports.
Accept an unknown host key without asking (a changed one is still refused); given twice, check no host key at all, which is unsafe.
The receive window of each channel, in bytes (default 24576).
Send a keepalive after seconds without traffic (0, the default, sends none).
Close the connection after seconds without traffic (0, the default, never).
Do not mark the traffic with the AF21 class of service.
Talk to the server through the standard input and output of command, run by the shell, instead of a TCP connection; host still names the host key.
Connect to host:port through the server and join it to the standard input and output, as netcat does.
Offer only these ciphers or MACs, separated by commas; help lists them.
An option in OpenSSH's form: BatchMode, BindAddress, ExitOnForwardFailure, GatewayPorts, IdentityFile, PasswordAuthentication, Port, ProxyCommand, ServerAliveInterval, StrictHostKeyChecking (yes, no or accept-new) and UseSyslog.
Request command as a subsystem.
Connect from this local address or port.
List the algorithms of one kind: kex, sig, cipher, mac or compress.
Print the version.

Hosts separated by commas are reached one through the other: the client logs in to the first, then through a forwarded connection to the next, and so on. Each hop is authenticated end to end; a host on the way sees only encrypted traffic.

With a terminal, a newline followed by ~. ends the connection, ~^Z puts it in the background and ~R makes new session keys.

The password to log in with. Other users can read a process's environment with ps(1), so use a key instead where you can.

~/.ssh/id_dropbear
The default key.
~/.ssh/known_hosts
The host keys trusted so far, in OpenSSH's form.

dropbear(8), dropbearkey(1), scp(1)

A key made by OpenSSH's ssh-keygen cannot be read here; make a key with dropbearkey(1) and add its public half, which dropbearkey -y prints, to the server's authorized_keys.

1 November 2026 dropbear 2026.94