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React Native

Start a Remote Shell with QuickShell

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Demonstrates the Chilkat Ssh.QuickShell method, which starts a remote shell using the simplified sequence OpenSessionChannel → SendReqPty → SendReqShell. It takes no arguments and returns the shell channel number, or -1 on failure. The default PTY size is 80 columns by 24 rows.

Background: Note that QuickShell does allocate a PTY, so unlike a bare SendReqShell the remote shell runs interactively: it prints a command prompt, echoes the commands you send, and runs interactive login scripts. That is convenient for terminal-style work but means the output contains prompts and echoed input that scripted parsing must tolerate. The method returns as soon as the shell request is accepted — it does not consume the initial login text or prompt, so read and discard that before relying on command output.

Chilkat React Native Downloads

React Native
import { Ssh } from '@chilkat/react-native'

async function chilkatExample() {
  // Demonstrates the Ssh.QuickShell method, which starts a remote shell using the simplified
  // sequence OpenSessionChannel, SendReqPty, and SendReqShell.  It takes no arguments and returns
  // the shell channel number, or -1 on failure.  The default PTY size is 80 columns by 24 rows.

  const ssh = new Ssh();

  const sshPort = 22;
  try {
    await ssh.connectAsync('ssh.example.com', sshPort);
  } catch {
    console.log(ssh.lastErrorText);
    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.
  const password = 'mySshPassword';

  try {
    await ssh.authenticatePwAsync('mySshLogin', password);
  } catch {
    console.log(ssh.lastErrorText);
    return;
  }

  // Start the shell.  Note that QuickShell allocates a PTY, so the remote shell runs
  // interactively: it prints a command prompt and echoes the commands that are sent to it.
  const channelNum = await ssh.quickShellAsync();
  if (channelNum < 0) {
    console.log(ssh.lastErrorText);
    return;
  }

  // QuickShell returns as soon as the shell request is accepted -- it does not wait for or
  // consume the initial login text or prompt.
  try {
    await ssh.channelSendStringAsync(channelNum, 'uname -a; echo DONE_MARKER\n', 'utf-8');
  } catch {
    console.log(ssh.lastErrorText);
    return;
  }

  // IMPORTANT: Set a read timeout before receiving until a match.  ReadTimeoutMs defaults to 0,
  // which means no limit -- without it, this call waits forever if the received data never
  // contains a match.
  ssh.readTimeoutMs = 15000;

  const caseSensitive = false;
  try {
    await ssh.channelReceiveUntilMatchAsync(channelNum, 'DONE_MARKER', 'utf-8', caseSensitive);
  } catch {
    console.log(ssh.lastErrorText);
    return;
  }

  let output: string;
  try {
    output = ssh.getReceivedText(channelNum, 'utf-8');
  } catch {
    console.log(ssh.lastErrorText);
    return;
  }

  console.log(output);

  ssh.disconnect();
}