SSH timeout on password challenge.

[Ken D'Ambrosio]

Hey, all.  I'm scripting stuff to a zillion (ballpark) servers, and ones 
that are up, but haven't been fully deployed (i.e., don't yet have ssh 
keys) password challenge me.  While there *is* an ssh timeout option, 
it's my understanding that that's for when a connection fails to 
establish, NOT for when a password challenge happens.  My script is 
using the timeout command:

timeout 5 ssh -n $host 'blahblahblah'

but that seems to not be doing the trick.  Since my script *does* 
(eventually) e-mail out, I assume it's working... but I've been staring 
at it sitting at this one host password challenge for over 20 min., now. 
  Even if it eventually times out, it ain't exactly optimal.

Any bright ideas on how to do this gracefully?

Thanks!

-Ken