README child-mnemonic vector and host-key note; ssh install refuses a ~/.ssh it cannot enter (closes #51)

The README now gives the child mnemonic keyfunc prints for the abandon ... about test mnemonic at index 0, checked by the README vectors test; the BIP-85 specification vector stays, marked as starting from a master key keyfunc cannot take. It also says ssh install needs the host key in known_hosts already, and how to get round that. ssh install now also lists ~/.ssh/. on its first connection and refuses, before any upload, a ~/.ssh it can read but not enter, which sftp shows as empty; a file where ~/.ssh belongs is refused the same way.

Model: opus-5-5
Co-authored-by: clawbot <sneak+clawbot@sneak.cloud>

internal/cli/ssh/install.go

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"bytes"
 	"crypto/rand"
 	"encoding/hex"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
@@ -32,6 +33,12 @@ const (
 	localMode     = 0o600
 )
 
+// ErrCannotEnter is the refusal of a host whose .ssh is there but
+// cannot be entered, so that nothing in it can be read or written.
+var ErrCannotEnter = errors.New(
+	"~/.ssh is there on the host but cannot be entered",
+)
+
 // install returns the command that adds the public key to a host.
 func install() *cobra.Command {
 	cmd := &cobra.Command{
@@ -199,30 +206,39 @@ func merge(content, line string) (string, bool) {
 
 // fetch brings the host's authorized_keys into the given path and
 // returns what is in it, and whether the .ssh directory was already
-// there. The one session lists .ssh and then gets the file, so the
-// listing settles the state of the directory before the get is read.
+// there. The one session lists .ssh, then .ssh/., and then gets the
+// file, so the listings settle the state of the directory before the
+// get is read.
 //
 // The file reads as empty in just two cases: sftp reported .ssh itself
-// as not there, or the listing succeeded and the get then reported the
-// file as not there. Anything else — the listing refused, the file
+// as not there, or both listings succeeded and the get then reported
+// the file as not there. Anything else — a listing refused, the file
 // there but unreadable, the connection down — fails the run and writes
 // nothing, because writing back over what was not read would leave the
 // host with the new key and nothing else. sftp cannot tell a missing
-// file from one in a directory it cannot enter, so the listing does:
-// a directory that is there but cannot be read is a failure, not an
-// empty file.
+// file from one in a directory it cannot enter, so the listings do: a
+// directory that is there but cannot be read fails the first, and one
+// that can be read but not entered fails the second, because nothing in
+// it can be looked up, not even ".". The first listing of such a
+// directory comes up empty, as the server leaves out every name it
+// cannot look up.
 func fetch(
 	cmd *cobra.Command, host string, options []string, into string,
 ) (string, bool, error) {
 	said, err := session(cmd, host, options, []string{
 		"ls -1 " + directory,
+		"ls -1 " + directory + "/.",
 		"get " + authorized + " " + quoted(into),
 	})
 	if err != nil {
-		if directoryAbsent(said) {
+		if listingNotFound(said, directory) {
 			return "", false, nil
 		}
 
+		if listingNotFound(said, directory+"/.") {
+			return "", false, ErrCannotEnter
+		}
+
 		if absent(said) {
 			return "", true, nil
 		}
@@ -239,18 +255,18 @@ func fetch(
 	return string(content), true, nil
 }
 
-// directoryAbsent says whether sftp reported .ssh itself as not being
-// there, which is the one listing failure read as a host that has no
-// authorized_keys yet. The reading is taken only from the line in which
-// sftp reports on that directory: any other failure of the listing, in
-// particular a directory that is there but cannot be entered, is left
-// as a failure, so that no key is written to a host whose keys were
-// never read.
-func directoryAbsent(said string) bool {
+// listingNotFound says whether sftp reported the path it was asked to
+// list as not being there. For .ssh that is the one listing failure
+// read as a host that has no authorized_keys yet; for .ssh/., once .ssh
+// itself has been listed, it is a .ssh that is there but cannot be
+// entered. The reading is taken only from the line in which sftp
+// reports on that path: any other failure of a listing, in particular a
+// directory that is there but cannot be read, is left as a failure, so
+// that no key is written to a host whose keys were never read.
+func listingNotFound(said, path string) bool {
 	for line := range strings.Lines(said) {
 		named, is := reportedCannotList(strings.TrimSpace(line))
-		if is && (named == directory ||
-			strings.HasSuffix(named, "/"+directory)) {
+		if is && (named == path || strings.HasSuffix(named, "/"+path)) {
 			return true
 		}
 	}
@@ -259,9 +275,9 @@ func directoryAbsent(said string) bool {
 }
 
 // reportedCannotList returns the path an sftp line reports it cannot
-// list for want of the directory, and whether the line is such a
-// report. The client writes this one wording when the directory a
-// listing names is not there, giving the path the server expanded.
+// list for want of it, and whether the line is such a report. The
+// client writes this one wording when it cannot look up the path a
+// listing names, giving the path the server expanded.
 func reportedCannotList(line string) (string, bool) {
 	const (
 		before = `Can't ls: "`