Adolfo noticed this while trying to darcs pull/get over SSH in issue1503.  

This is darcs attempting to start a darcs transfer-mode connection and
failing.  It then falls back to one connection per file.

Note that if this affecting a lot of people, they may perceive it as an
SSH performance regression.  The "good" news is that for people with
non-empty pass-phrases, this will not be a silent regression.  People
should start complaining about typing in their passphrases a lot.

So, the usual questions apply.

1. Adolfo, can *you* systematically reproduce this?
2. If so, what can you tell us about your setup?  For example, what GHC
version did you use to compile Darcs on both ends?  Anything out of the
ordinary that could provide a clue?
3. Can somebody else reproduce this?

------------

Beginning identifying repository .
Done identifying repository .
Identified darcs-1 repo:
/media/my-disk/stuff/adolfo/programacion/gsoc2010/testRepo/T
Beginning identifying repository
/media/my-disk/stuff/adolfo/programacion/gsoc2010/testrepo/s
Done identifying repository
/media/my-disk/stuff/adolfo/programacion/gsoc2010/testrepo/s
I'm doing copyFileUsingCache on
+inventories/0000000179-59cb56c3d08220336a921deb95eeb287954eec1403934ae25bccfb146d1e1c9f
Disabling progress reports...
ssh acadavid@lizarus.com darcs transfer-mode --repodir R/
Failed to start ssh connection:
    fd:7: hGetLine: end of file
Severing ssh failed connection to
+acadavid@lizarus.com:R/_darcs/inventories/0000000179-59cb56c3d08220336a921deb95eeb287954eec1403934ae25
+bccfb146d1e1c9f
NOTE: the server may be running a version of darcs prior to 2.0.0.

Installing darcs 2 on the server will speed up ssh-based commands.

Disabling progress reports...