Success: native Emacs 21.1.1 with Cygwin openssh on Windows XP

[Patrick Dehne]

It worked pretty much out of the box.

First I installed and configured Cygwin + openssh. I was able to log
into my server using public/private key authentication.

Then I added this to my .emacs:
(require 'tramp)
(setq tramp-default-method "sshx")

The passphrase prompt from ssh confuses Emacs or Tramp. I was able to get
rid of the passphrase prompt from ssh using ssh-agent and ssh-add.

Thats why I use the following procedure to use Tramp with Emacs:
- open a cygwin bash prompt
- execute ssh-agent like this: exec ssh-agent $SHELL
- execute ssh-add and enter the passphrase
- start emacs like this: emacs&
- open a remote file using the tramp syntax, e.g. 
/address@hidden:/etc/mail/linux.mc

Maybe it is possible to simplify this procedure, either by getting
the passphrase prompt inside emacs or by doing clever things to get
the ssh-agent to work for all Windows processes, not only inside the
Cygwin bash.

It takes some time to open the first remote file because a lot of
negotiating between tramp and the remote shell. I think tramp
uploads some (perl?) code for mime encoding, this is what takes
quite some time.  After the first file is opened, it is pretty fast.

The only (non-critical) error I get after changing a remote file is:
Auto-saving...
Auto-saving linux.mc: Opening output file: no such file or directory, 
f:/tmp/#linux.mc#

Ideas anyone?

-- 
Patrick Dehne
address@hidden