The RemoteForward option allows a port to be dynamically assigned if 0 is entered as the port number. It would be helpful if the ssh client could do the same for DynamicForwards and LocalForwards.
+1. RemoteForward has had the ability to dynamically allocate the listening port since bz#1003, but LocalForward doesn't currently support it. I'd like to be able to do something like: $ ssh -MNf remote $ port=$(ssh -O forward -L 0:localhost:1234 remote) $ client localhost:$port without having to do a "localport=$(( 32000 + $RANDOM )); ssh -L $localport:localhost:1234 && break" loop, or something similar.