ssh through a bastion

[Garjola Dindi]

Hi,

I am using tramp to ssh to a cluster which uses a bastion (I think this
is the name for this thing!). Usually, to connect to the cluster, I do

ssh user@cluster

I asks for a password, and presents a curses menu to select the type of
node (after a timeout it will select a default option). After that, it
asks again for the password and connects to a node of the cluster. In
the case of scp, there is no curses menu, but I still have to enter the
password twice.

I can use tramp without problem, since the timeout will select the
default node, which is OK for me.

However, I have to enter the password twice, which is inconvenient.
Also, from time to time, it will ask for the password again (and twice
every time).

I thought that using the .authinfo file I would not need to enter the
password, but it still asks for it (but only once).

Is there a way to avoid manually entering the password in this kind of
situation?

I hope my description above is not too vague and someone can help me.

Thank you.

G.

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