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Lua

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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Lua
local chilkat = require("chilkat")

-- 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.

local ssh = chilkat.Ssh.new()

local sshPort = 22
local success = ssh:connect("ssh.example.com", sshPort)
if not success then
    print(ssh.last_error_text)
    return
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.
local password = "mySshPassword"

success = ssh:authenticate_pw("mySshLogin", password)
if not success then
    print(ssh.last_error_text)
    return
end

local channelNum = ssh:open_session_channel()
if channelNum < 0 then
    print(ssh.last_error_text)
    return
end

success = ssh:send_req_exec(channelNum, "ls -l /tmp")
if not success then
    print(ssh.last_error_text)
    return
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.read_timeout_ms = 15000

-- Receive everything the command produces, up to and including channel close.
success = ssh:channel_receive_to_close(channelNum)
if not success then
    print(ssh.last_error_text)
    return
end

local output = ssh:get_received_text(channelNum, "utf-8")
if not ssh.last_method_success then
    print(ssh.last_error_text)
    return
end

print(output)

ssh:disconnect()