Question

I have a function

def run_through_ssh(command)
    host = $edumate_server
    user = 'user'
    pass = '******'

    output = Array.new      
    Net::SSH.start( host, user, :password => pass ) do|ssh|
        output = ssh.exec(command)
        #output = ssh.exec(command+" 2>&1")
    end

    return output
end

which executes the command I want correctly on the remote server but the output variable doesn’t contain what the remotely executed command outputs to the screen. I use this function inside sinatra and strangely I can see the output on the screen where I run sinatra.

How can I capture the output of remotely executed command?

The output variable contains things like

#<Net::SSH::Connection::Channel:0x3fe40c0 @remote_maximum_window_size=2097152, @
eof=false, @on_open_failed=nil, @remote_window_size=2097152, @closing=true, @pro
perties={}, @local_maximum_packet_size=65536, @on_process=nil, @type="session",
@remote_id=0, @on_confirm_open=#<Proc:0x031f64a0@C:/Ruby187/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge
ms/net-ssh-2.2.1/lib/net/ssh/connection/session.rb:320>, @on_request={}, @local_
id=0, @on_extended_data=#<Proc:0x031f6560@C:/Ruby187/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/net-
ssh-2.2.1/lib/net/ssh/connection/session.rb:332>, @local_maximum_window_size=131
072, @on_eof=nil, @connection=#<Net::SSH::Connection::Session:0x3fe42a0 @options
={:logger=>#<Logger:0x400cb90 @level=4, @progname=nil, @logdev=#<Logger::LogDevi

using

• ruby 1.8.7 (2010-08-16 patchlevel 302) [i386-mingw32]
• net-ssh (2.2.1)

Answer 1

Something like this should work:

Net::SSH.start( host, user, :password => pass ) do |ssh|
  output = ssh.exec!(command)
end
output

The exec! method captures stdin/stdout if no block is given. See http://net-ssh.github.com/ssh/v2/api/classes/Net/SSH/Connection/Session.html#M000094