[Discuss] SSH options (was Future of X11 (was Trying to connect to internet in Debian))

[Daniel Barrett]

On January 18, 2026, Kent Borg wrote:
>- "-A"
>Man page says "forwarding of connections from an authentication agent", 
>sounds straightforward
>
>- "-Y"
>Man page says "Enables trusted X11 forwarding.", and now I am confused 
>and think I don't understand "-A".

Quick explanation: SSH agent forwarding and X11 forwarding are just
different things. :-)

Agent forwarding is about SSH agents. It transparently allows a single
agent (a key store) on one machine to handle SSH authentication
requests from another machine as if the agent were local to the second
machine.

X11 forwarding is about X. It allows X windows on the SSH server to
open on the SSH client's display machine.

Dan