Manuel, The trouble in all three cases is that rsync expects to have the SSH data stream to "middle" all to itself, but you need to slip a password into this stream first so that the connection to "target" can be made.
Here's what I think would be easiest. If ssh's input is not a terminal, but $DISPLAY is set, it tries to use a graphical password-prompting program specified by $SSH_ASKPASS. Put such a program on "middle" if you don't already have one, and configure "middle" so that $SSH_ASKPASS will be appropriately set even though the shell that handles the second SSH command will not be a login shell (this means ~/.bashrc or ~/.ssh/environment, not ~/.bash_profile). Then, enable X forwarding on the connection to "middle". The second SSH will pop up a graphical password prompt, which will rattle through the first SSH to your screen. This would be the command: rsync -e "ssh -X middle ssh target" :/path/to/remote/file . However, I consider the following more elegant because the -e argument specifies not the remote machine but the way of getting there: rsync -e "ssh -X middle ssh" target:/path/to/remote/file . I successfully used this technique to pull a file to my computer from a computer on my school's network via an intermediary on that network. -- Matt McCutchen, ``hashproduct'' [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- http://mysite.verizon.net/hashproduct/ -- To unsubscribe or change options: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html