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Visual Basic 6.0

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 OpenSessionChannelSendReqPtySendReqShell. 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 Visual Basic 6.0 Downloads

Visual Basic 6.0
Dim success As Long
success = 0

'  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.

Dim ssh As New ChilkatSsh

Dim sshPort As Long
sshPort = 22
success = ssh.Connect("ssh.example.com",sshPort)
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print ssh.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

'  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.
Dim password As String
password = "mySshPassword"

success = ssh.AuthenticatePw("mySshLogin",password)
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print ssh.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

'  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.
Dim channelNum As Long
channelNum = ssh.QuickShell()
If (channelNum < 0) Then
    Debug.Print ssh.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

'  QuickShell returns as soon as the shell request is accepted -- it does not wait for or
'  consume the initial login text or prompt.
success = ssh.ChannelSendString(channelNum,"uname -a; echo DONE_MARKER" & vbLf,"utf-8")
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print ssh.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

'  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

Dim caseSensitive As Long
caseSensitive = 0
success = ssh.ChannelReceiveUntilMatch(channelNum,"DONE_MARKER","utf-8",caseSensitive)
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print ssh.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

Dim output As String
output = ssh.GetReceivedText(channelNum,"utf-8")
If (ssh.LastMethodSuccess = 0) Then
    Debug.Print ssh.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

Debug.Print output

ssh.Disconnect