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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.

Chilkat PowerShell Downloads

PowerShell
Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

$success = $false

#  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-Object Chilkat.Ssh

$sshPort = 22
$success = $ssh.Connect("ssh.example.com",$sshPort)
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($ssh.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

#  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 -eq $false) {
    $($ssh.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$channelNum = $ssh.OpenSessionChannel()
if ($channelNum -lt 0) {
    $($ssh.LastErrorText)
    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.
$success = $ssh.SendReqShell($channelNum)
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($ssh.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$success = $ssh.ChannelSendString($channelNum,"date`n","utf-8")
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($ssh.LastErrorText)
    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 -eq -1) {
    $($ssh.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

if ($result -eq -2) {
    $("No channel data arrived before the timeout.")
}

if ($result -eq 0) {
    $("EOF or channel close was processed.  Buffered data may still remain.")
}

if ($result -gt 0) {
    $("Total bytes buffered: " + $result)
}

$output = $ssh.GetReceivedText($channelNum,"utf-8")
if ($ssh.LastMethodSuccess -eq $false) {
    $($ssh.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$($output)

$ssh.Disconnect()