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PHP

Poll an SSH Channel for Incoming Data

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Demonstrates the Chilkat Ssh.ChannelPoll method, which polls a channel for incoming messages, waiting at most the given number of milliseconds. The first argument is the channel number and the second is the poll timeout; pass 0 for a nonblocking poll.

The integer return value is -1 on error, -2 if nothing arrived before the timeout, 0 if EOF or channel close was processed, or — when greater than 0 — the total bytes currently buffered for the channel (not the bytes newly received by this call).

Background: ChannelPoll gives you an explicit, per-call wait, which is what an event loop or responsive UI needs — poll briefly, do other work, poll again. Importantly, the timeout you pass governs the wait: shorter ReadTimeoutMs or IdleTimeoutMs values do not cut it short. A -2 return simply means nothing new arrived, which is normal when polling.

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Chilkat2 PHP
<?php

use Chilkat2\Ssh;

// Demonstrates the Ssh.ChannelPoll method, which polls a channel for incoming messages, waiting
// at most the given number of milliseconds.  The 1st argument is the channel number and the 2nd
// is the poll timeout.  Pass 0 for a nonblocking poll.

$ssh = new Ssh();

$sshPort = 22;
try {
    $ssh->Connect('ssh.example.com', $sshPort);

    // 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';

    $ssh->AuthenticatePw('mySshLogin', $password);
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";
    exit;
}

$channelNum = $ssh->OpenSessionChannel();
if ($channelNum < 0) {
    echo $ssh->LastErrorText, "\n";
    exit;
}

// Start a shell WITHOUT requesting a PTY.  Without a PTY the shell sees it is connected to a
// raw data pipe and enters non-interactive mode: it suppresses the command prompt, does not
// echo typed commands back, and skips interactive login scripts.  The output is therefore
// clean and easily parseable -- but because no prompt is ever sent, code must not wait for
// one.  Instead, have each command print a predictable marker, or wait for EOF / channel close.
try {
    $ssh->SendReqShell($channelNum);

    $ssh->ChannelSendString($channelNum, "date\n", 'utf-8');
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";
    exit;
}

// Wait up to 3 seconds for channel data.
$pollTimeoutMs = 3000;
// The return value is: -1 on error, -2 if nothing arrived before the timeout, 0 if EOF or
// channel close was processed, or the total number of buffered bytes when greater than 0.
$result = $ssh->ChannelPoll($channelNum, $pollTimeoutMs);
if ($result == -1) {
    echo $ssh->LastErrorText, "\n";
    exit;
}

if ($result == -2) {
    echo "No channel data arrived before the timeout.\n";
}

if ($result == 0) {
    echo "EOF or channel close was processed.  Buffered data may still remain.\n";
}

if ($result > 0) {
    echo 'Total bytes buffered: ', $result, "\n";
}

try {
    $output = $ssh->GetReceivedText($channelNum, 'utf-8');
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";
    exit;
}

echo $output, "\n";

$ssh->Disconnect();