Ruby

Read Data from an SSH Channel

Demonstrates the Chilkat Ssh.ChannelRead method, which reads incoming SSH channel messages. The only argument is the channel number; the ReadTimeoutMs property limits how long it waits. Received data is appended to the channel's receive buffer, then retrieved with a GetReceived... method.

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: SSH reading is a two-step pattern that trips people up at first: the Channel* read/poll methods move bytes from the network into an internal per-channel buffer, and a separate GetReceived... call hands that buffer to your code. A positive return is therefore a buffer total, not a count of what this call fetched. Note that a 0 return means EOF or close — buffered data can still remain and should be drained.

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Ruby

require 'chilkat'

success = false

#  Demonstrates the Ssh.ChannelRead method, which reads incoming SSH channel messages.  The only
#  argument is the channel number.  The ReadTimeoutMs property limits how long it waits.

ssh = Chilkat::CkSsh.new()

sshPort = 22
success = ssh.Connect("ssh.example.com",sshPort)
if (success == false)
    print ssh.lastErrorText() + "\n";
    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 == false)
    print ssh.lastErrorText() + "\n";
    exit
end

channelNum = ssh.OpenSessionChannel()
if (channelNum < 0)
    print ssh.lastErrorText() + "\n";
    exit
end

#  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 == false)
    print ssh.lastErrorText() + "\n";
    exit
end

success = ssh.ChannelSendString(channelNum,"uname -a\n","utf-8")
if (success == false)
    print ssh.lastErrorText() + "\n";
    exit
end

#  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.ChannelRead(channelNum)
if (result == -1)
    print ssh.lastErrorText() + "\n";
    exit
end

if (result == -2)
    print "No channel data arrived before the timeout." + "\n";
end

if (result == 0)
    print "EOF or channel close was processed.  Buffered data may still remain." + "\n";
end

if (result > 0)
    print "Total bytes buffered: " + result.to_s() + "\n";
end

output = ssh.getReceivedText(channelNum,"utf-8")
if (ssh.get_LastMethodSuccess() == false)
    print ssh.lastErrorText() + "\n";
    exit
end

print output + "\n";

ssh.Disconnect()