Receive an SSH Channel Until Close

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Demonstrates the Chilkat Ssh.ChannelReceiveToClose method, which receives data on a channel until the server sends and Chilkat processes channel CLOSE. The only argument is the channel number. EOF alone does not complete this method.

Important: Set the ReadTimeoutMs property before calling this method. It defaults to 0, meaning no limit, so without it the call waits forever if the server never sends channel close.

Background: This is the simplest and most reliable way to collect the complete output of a one-shot exec command, because the server closes the channel when the command finishes. It is not appropriate for an interactive shell, which never closes on its own — use the poll-based methods there instead. Both stdout and stderr are processed, merged or kept separate according to StderrToStdout.

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#include <C_CkSsh.h>

void ChilkatSample(void)
    {
    BOOL success;
    HCkSsh ssh;
    int sshPort;
    const char *password;
    int channelNum;
    const char *output;

    success = FALSE;

    //  Demonstrates the Ssh.ChannelReceiveToClose method, which receives data on a channel until the
    //  server sends channel CLOSE.  The only argument is the channel number.  EOF alone does not
    //  complete this method.

    ssh = CkSsh_Create();

    sshPort = 22;
    success = CkSsh_Connect(ssh,"ssh.example.com",sshPort);
    if (success == FALSE) {
        printf("%s\n",CkSsh_lastErrorText(ssh));
        CkSsh_Dispose(ssh);
        return;
    }

    //  Normally you would not hard-code the password in source.  You should instead obtain it
    //  from an interactive prompt, environment variable, or a secrets vault.
    password = "mySshPassword";

    success = CkSsh_AuthenticatePw(ssh,"mySshLogin",password);
    if (success == FALSE) {
        printf("%s\n",CkSsh_lastErrorText(ssh));
        CkSsh_Dispose(ssh);
        return;
    }

    channelNum = CkSsh_OpenSessionChannel(ssh);
    if (channelNum < 0) {
        printf("%s\n",CkSsh_lastErrorText(ssh));
        CkSsh_Dispose(ssh);
        return;
    }

    success = CkSsh_SendReqExec(ssh,channelNum,"ls -l /tmp");
    if (success == FALSE) {
        printf("%s\n",CkSsh_lastErrorText(ssh));
        CkSsh_Dispose(ssh);
        return;
    }

    //  IMPORTANT: Set a read timeout.  ReadTimeoutMs defaults to 0, which means no limit -- without
    //  it, this call waits forever if the server never sends channel close.
    CkSsh_putReadTimeoutMs(ssh,15000);

    //  Receive everything the command produces, up to and including channel close.
    success = CkSsh_ChannelReceiveToClose(ssh,channelNum);
    if (success == FALSE) {
        printf("%s\n",CkSsh_lastErrorText(ssh));
        CkSsh_Dispose(ssh);
        return;
    }

    output = CkSsh_getReceivedText(ssh,channelNum,"utf-8");
    if (CkSsh_getLastMethodSuccess(ssh) == FALSE) {
        printf("%s\n",CkSsh_lastErrorText(ssh));
        CkSsh_Dispose(ssh);
        return;
    }

    printf("%s\n",output);

    CkSsh_Disconnect(ssh);


    CkSsh_Dispose(ssh);

    }