Delphi ActiveX

Receive an SSH Channel Until Close

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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var
success: Integer;
ssh: TChilkatSsh;
sshPort: Integer;
password: WideString;
channelNum: Integer;
output: WideString;

begin
success := 0;

//  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 := TChilkatSsh.Create(Self);

sshPort := 22;
success := ssh.Connect('ssh.example.com',sshPort);
if (success = 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(ssh.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;

//  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 := ssh.AuthenticatePw('mySshLogin',password);
if (success = 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(ssh.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;

channelNum := ssh.OpenSessionChannel();
if (channelNum < 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(ssh.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;

success := ssh.SendReqExec(channelNum,'ls -l /tmp');
if (success = 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(ssh.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;

//  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.
ssh.ReadTimeoutMs := 15000;

//  Receive everything the command produces, up to and including channel close.
success := ssh.ChannelReceiveToClose(channelNum);
if (success = 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(ssh.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;

output := ssh.GetReceivedText(channelNum,'utf-8');
if (ssh.LastMethodSuccess = 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(ssh.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;
Memo1.Lines.Add(output);

ssh.Disconnect();