Here is the output of cloning from a ssh source:

```
$ darcs clone host:repo
scp: repo//_darcs/prefs/sources: No such file or directory
scp: repo//_darcs/prefs/prefs: No such file or directory
scp: repo//_darcs/packs/basic.tar.gz: No such file or directory
Problem while getting packed repository, getting it normally now.
Copying patches, to get lazy repository hit ctrl-C...
Finished getting.
```

All these scp messages started appearing between darcs 2.5.2 and 2.8. 
The bug is already present before the "Drop SSH ControlMaster support"
patch.

Patches that could be involved are "Fix scp invocation" and "resolve
issue1970: allow ssh:// urls", but I haven't managed to build a darcs
that is so old to check it well.

Can you tell which versions of darcs you run (locally and remote)?
Because I am using darcs over ssh a lot and haven't seen these in years.

The actual output with HEAD is a little different (seems to show
stdout instead of stderr) but it is still verbose.

Here is what I get on two different machines with either HEAD (up to
"cleanup: group type signatures with definitions in D.U.Printer"). One
machine  runs Ubuntu 15.04, the other Ubuntu 14.04. Cloning does not
require darcs on the other side.

```
$ darcs clone host:repo
motd
                               100%    0     0.0KB/s   00:00
format
                               100%   15     0.0KB/s   00:00
format
                               100%   15     0.0KB/s   00:00
hashed_inventory
                               100%  654     0.6KB/s   00:00
hashed_inventory
                               100%  654     0.6KB/s   00:00
3094801446de49edbe7daae7bea5959b6d0a5e9f91dd047569ecac4a25b98d53
                               100%  122     0.1KB/s   00:00
2c28d2c3b198fe9cc7361a2ff1d15411a6996eda1359cbf0ea3785c59f8bc017
                               100%   53     0.1KB/s   00:00
Copying patches, to get lazy repository hit ctrl-C...
0000000152-8b4c164af34a8e50a55afee94e12157bfbbdf976d5934ffd525d2cf49f0c953b
                          100%  161     0.2KB/s   00:00
0000000142-00087d933adbd73541372c0bb6a2c188ecf70fc5240c9200584455260077469a
                          100%  145     0.1KB/s   00:00
Finished cloning.
```

Here is what darcs --exact-version says on both machines. Newest machine:

```
Compiled with:

HTTP-4000.2.19
array-0.4.0.1
attoparsec-0.11.3.1
base-4.6.0.1
base16-bytestring-0.1.1.6
binary-0.7.3.0
bytestring-0.9.2.1
containers-0.5.0.0
cryptohash-0.11.6
data-ordlist-0.4.5
dataenc-0.14.0.5
datetime-0.2.1
directory-1.2.1.0
exceptions-0.6.1
extensible-exceptions-0.1.1.4
filepath-1.3.0.1
hashable-1.2.3.1
haskeline-0.7.1.3
html-1.0.1.2
mmap-0.5.9
mtl-2.1.2
network-2.4.2.3
old-time-1.1.0.1
parsec-3.1.8
process-1.2.1.0
random-1.0.1.1
regex-applicative-0.3.0.3
regex-compat-tdfa-0.95.1.4
tar-0.4.1.0
terminfo-0.3.2.5
text-0.11.3.1
transformers-0.3.0.0
unix-2.7.1.0
unix-compat-0.4.1.4
utf8-string-0.3.8
vector-0.10.0.1
zip-archive-0.2.3.7
zlib-0.5.4.2
```


And the oldest Ubuntu one:

```
Compiled with:

HTTP-4000.2.18
array-0.4.0.1
attoparsec-0.12.1.1
base-4.6.0.1
base16-bytestring-0.1.1.6
binary-0.7.2.1
bytestring-0.10.0.2
containers-0.5.0.0
cryptohash-0.11.6
data-ordlist-0.4.6.1
dataenc-0.14.0.7
datetime-0.2.1
directory-1.2.0.1
exceptions-0.6.1
extensible-exceptions-0.1.1.4
filepath-1.3.0.1
hashable-1.2.2.0
haskeline-0.7.1.3
html-1.0.1.2
mmap-0.5.9
mtl-2.1.3.1
network-2.4.2.3
old-time-1.1.0.1
parsec-3.1.5
process-1.1.0.2
random-1.1
regex-applicative-0.3.0.3
regex-compat-tdfa-0.95.1.4
tar-0.4.0.1
terminfo-0.3.2.6
text-1.1.1.3
transformers-0.3.0.0
unix-2.6.0.1
unix-compat-0.4.1.3
utf8-string-0.3.8
vector-0.10.11.0
zip-archive-0.2.3.4
zlib-0.5.4.1
```

I have made a new clone of screened, cabal install'd your complete
package list into a sandbox (using --force-reinstalls) and recompliled
everything, but still don't see any of those messages when cloning over
ssh. Then I went back to before the compression patches but still no
messages.

Next guess: could this have to do with the ssh version or configuration,
either remote or locally? Do you get them with

  darcs clone --lazy darcs-unstable@darcs.net:screened

? This is the output I get:

Welcome to the darcs screened repository.

If you would like to contribute, please read our guide for contributors:
http://wiki.darcs.net/Development/GettingStarted

Thanks and happy hacking!
**********************
Finished cloning.

D'oh! Indeed on darcs.net I don't see any such messages. The messages I
saw came from another server that seems to have verbose settings for
sshd.. I close the ticket.