[ Thanks to dave for
this link. ]
“SSH’s (secure shell) most common authentication mode is called
‘interactive keyboard password authentication,’ so called both
because it is typically done via keyboard, and because openssh
takes active measures to make sure that the password is, indeed,
typed interactively by the keyboard.“Sometimes, however, it is necessary to fool ssh into accepting
an interactive password non-interactively. This is where sshpass
comes in…”