NAME
Net::SSH::Perl - Perl client Interface to SSH
SYNOPSIS
use Net::SSH::Perl;
my $ssh = Net::SSH::Perl->new($host);
$ssh->login($user, $pass);
my($stdout, $stderr, $exit) = $ssh->cmd($cmd);DESCRIPTION
Net::SSH::Perl is an all-Perl module implementing an ssh client. It enables you to simply and securely execute commands on remote machines, and receive the STDOUT, STDERR, and exit status of that remote command.
It contains built-in support for various methods of authenticating with the server (password authentication, RSA challenge-response authentication, etc.). It completely implements the I/O buffering, packet transport, and user authentication layers of the SSH protocol, and makes use of external Perl libraries (in the Crypt:: family of modules) to handle encryption of all data sent across the insecure network. It can also read your existing SSH configuration files (/etc/ssh_config, etc.), RSA identity files, known hosts files, etc.
One advantage to using Net::SSH::Perl over wrapper-style implementations of ssh clients is that it saves on process overhead: you no longer need to fork and execute a separate process in order to connect to an sshd. Depending on the amount of time and memory needed to fork a process, this win can be quite substantial; particularly if you're running in a persistent Perl environment (mod_perl, for example), where forking a new process is a drain on process and memory resources.
It also simplifies the process of using password-based authentications; when writing a wrapper around ssh you probably need to use Expect to control the ssh client and give it your password. Net::SSH::Perl has built-in support for the authentication protocols, so there's no longer any hassle of communicating with any external processes.
BASIC USAGE
Usage of Net::SSH::Perl is very simple.
Net::SSH::Perl->new($host, %params)
To set up a new connection, call the new method, which connects to $host and returns a Net::SSH::Perl object.
new accepts the following named parameters in %params:
cipher
Specifies the name of the encryption cipher that you wish to use for this connection. This must be one of the supported ciphers (currently, IDEA, DES, DES3, and Blowfish); specifying an unsupported cipher is a fatal error. The default cipher is IDEA.
port
The port of the sshd daemon to which you wish to connect; if not specified, this is assumed to be the default ssh port.
debug
Set to a true value if you want debugging messages printed out while the connection is being opened. These can be helpful in trying to determine connection problems, etc. The messages are similar (and in some cases exact) to those written out by the ssh client when you use the -v option.
Defaults to false.
interactive
Set to a true value if you're using Net::SSH interactively. This is used in determining whether or not to display password prompts, for example. It's basically the inverse of the BatchMode parameter in ssh configuration.
Defaults to false.
privileged
Set to a true value if you want to bind to a privileged port locally. You'll need this if you plan to use Rhosts or Rhosts-RSA authentication, because the remote server requires the client to connect on a privileged port. Of course, to bind to a privileged port you'll need to be root.
If you don't provide this parameter, and Net::SSH::Perl detects that you're running as root, this will automatically be set to true. Otherwise it defaults to false.
identity_files
A list of RSA identity files to be used in RSA authentication. The value of this argument should be a reference to an array of strings, each string identifying the location of an identity file.
If you don't provide this, RSA authentication defaults to using "$ENV{HOME}/.ssh/identity".
$ssh->login([ $user [, $password ] ])
Sets the username and password to be used when authenticating with the sshd daemon. The username $user is required for all authentication protocols (to identify yourself to the remote server), but if you don't supply it the username of the user executing the program is used.
The password $password is needed only for password authentication (it's not used for RSA passphrase authentication, though perhaps it should be). And if you're running in an interactive session and you've not provided a password, you'll be prompted for one.
($out, $err, $exit) = $ssh->cmd($cmd, [ $stdin ])
Runs the command $cmd on the remote server and returns the stdout, stderr, and exit status of that command.
If $stdin is provided, it's supplied to the remote command $cmd on standard input.
NOTE: the ssh protocol does not support (so far as I know) running multiple commands per connection, unless those commands are chained together so that the remote shell can evaluate them. Because of this, a new socket connection is created each time you call cmd, and disposed of afterwards. In other words, this code:
my $ssh = Net::SSH::Perl->new("host1");
$ssh->login("user1", "pass1");
$ssh->cmd("foo");
$ssh->cmd("bar");will actually connect to the sshd on the first invocation of cmd, then disconnect; then connect again on the second invocation of cmd, then disconnect again.
This is less than ideal, obviously. Future version of Net::SSH::Perl may find ways around that.
ADVANCED METHODS
Your basic SSH needs will hopefully be met by the methods listed above. If they're not, however, you may want to use some of the additional methods listed here. Some of these are aimed at end-users, while others are probably more useful for actually writing an authentication module, or a cipher, etc.
$ssh->config
Returns the Net::SSH::Perl::Config object managing the configuration data for this SSH object. This is constructed from data passed in to the constructor new (see above), merged with data read from the user and system configuration files. See the Net::SSH::Perl::Config docs for details on methods you can call on this object (you'll probably be more interested in the get and set methods).
$ssh->sock
Returns the socket connection to sshd. If your client is not connected, dies.
$ssh->debug($msg)
If debugging is turned on for this session (see the debug parameter to the new method, above), writes $msg to STDERR. Otherwise nothing is done.
$ssh->in_leftover([ $leftover ])
"Input leftover"; you can use this to store the data left over from the last socket read, the data that wasn't read into a packet on the client side. This is needed because we read as much data as we can (up to 8192) from the remote socket; not all of the data we read comprises one single packet, however. Your client code, though, will most likely have asked for one single packet; so we need some way to store the leftover data between reads.
If passed $leftover, sets the internal leftover buffer.
Returns the contents of the leftover buffer.
$ssh->set_cipher($cipher_name)
Sets the cipher for the SSH session $ssh to $cipher_name (which must be a valid cipher name), and turns on encryption for that session.
$ssh->send_cipher
Returns the "send" cipher object. This is the object that encrypts outgoing data.
If it's not defined, encryption is not turned on for the session.
$ssh->receive_cipher
Returns the "receive" cipher object. This is the object that decrypts incoming data.
If it's not defined, encryption is not turned on for the session.
NOTE: the send and receive ciphers and two different objects, each with its own internal state (initialization vector, in particular). Thus they cannot be interchanged.
$ssh->session_key
Returns the session key, which is simply 32 bytes of random data and is used as the encryption/decryption key.
$ssh->session_id
Returns the session ID, which is generated from the server's host and server keys, and from the check bytes that it sends along with the keys. The server may require the session ID to be passed along in other packets, as well (for example, when responding to RSA challenges).
$packet = $ssh->packet_start($packet_type)
Starts building a new packet of type $packet_type. This is just a handy method for lazy people. Internally it calls Net::SSH::Perl::Packet::new, so take a look at those docs for more details.
SUPPORT
For samples/tutorials, take a look at the scripts in eg/ in the distribution directory.
If you have any questions, code samples, bug reports, or feedback, please email them to:
ben@rhumba.pair.comAUTHOR & COPYRIGHT
Benjamin Trott, ben@rhumba.pair.com
Except where otherwise noted, Net::SSH::Perl is Copyright 2001 Benjamin Trott. All rights reserved. Net::SSH::Perl is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.