Run a command over SSH with JSch

I'm trying to run a command over SSH with JSch, but JSch has virtually no documentation and the examples I've found are terrible. For example, this one doesn't show code for handling the output stream. And, this one uses an ugly hack to know when to stop reading from the output stream.

The following code example written in Java will allow you to execute any command on a foreign computer through SSH from within a java program. You will need to include the com.jcraft.jsch jar file.

  /* 
  * SSHManager
  * 
  * @author cabbott
  * @version 1.0
  */
  package cabbott.net;

  import com.jcraft.jsch.*;
  import java.io.IOException;
  import java.io.InputStream;
  import java.util.logging.Level;
  import java.util.logging.Logger;

  public class SSHManager
  {
  private static final Logger LOGGER = 
      Logger.getLogger(SSHManager.class.getName());
  private JSch jschSSHChannel;
  private String strUserName;
  private String strConnectionIP;
  private int intConnectionPort;
  private String strPassword;
  private Session sesConnection;
  private int intTimeOut;

  private void doCommonConstructorActions(String userName, 
       String password, String connectionIP, String knownHostsFileName)
  {
     jschSSHChannel = new JSch();

     try
     {
        jschSSHChannel.setKnownHosts(knownHostsFileName);
     }
     catch(JSchException jschX)
     {
        logError(jschX.getMessage());
     }

     strUserName = userName;
     strPassword = password;
     strConnectionIP = connectionIP;
  }

  public SSHManager(String userName, String password, 
     String connectionIP, String knownHostsFileName)
  {
     doCommonConstructorActions(userName, password, 
                connectionIP, knownHostsFileName);
     intConnectionPort = 22;
     intTimeOut = 60000;
  }

  public SSHManager(String userName, String password, String connectionIP, 
     String knownHostsFileName, int connectionPort)
  {
     doCommonConstructorActions(userName, password, connectionIP, 
        knownHostsFileName);
     intConnectionPort = connectionPort;
     intTimeOut = 60000;
  }

  public SSHManager(String userName, String password, String connectionIP, 
      String knownHostsFileName, int connectionPort, int timeOutMilliseconds)
  {
     doCommonConstructorActions(userName, password, connectionIP, 
         knownHostsFileName);
     intConnectionPort = connectionPort;
     intTimeOut = timeOutMilliseconds;
  }

  public String connect()
  {
     String errorMessage = null;

     try
     {
        sesConnection = jschSSHChannel.getSession(strUserName, 
            strConnectionIP, intConnectionPort);
        sesConnection.setPassword(strPassword);
        // UNCOMMENT THIS FOR TESTING PURPOSES, BUT DO NOT USE IN PRODUCTION
        // sesConnection.setConfig("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");
        sesConnection.connect(intTimeOut);
     }
     catch(JSchException jschX)
     {
        errorMessage = jschX.getMessage();
     }

     return errorMessage;
  }

  private String logError(String errorMessage)
  {
     if(errorMessage != null)
     {
        LOGGER.log(Level.SEVERE, "{0}:{1} - {2}", 
            new Object[]{strConnectionIP, intConnectionPort, errorMessage});
     }

     return errorMessage;
  }

  private String logWarning(String warnMessage)
  {
     if(warnMessage != null)
     {
        LOGGER.log(Level.WARNING, "{0}:{1} - {2}", 
           new Object[]{strConnectionIP, intConnectionPort, warnMessage});
     }

     return warnMessage;
  }

  public String sendCommand(String command)
  {
     StringBuilder outputBuffer = new StringBuilder();

     try
     {
        Channel channel = sesConnection.openChannel("exec");
        ((ChannelExec)channel).setCommand(command);
        InputStream commandOutput = channel.getInputStream();
        channel.connect();
        int readByte = commandOutput.read();

        while(readByte != 0xffffffff)
        {
           outputBuffer.append((char)readByte);
           readByte = commandOutput.read();
        }

        channel.disconnect();
     }
     catch(IOException ioX)
     {
        logWarning(ioX.getMessage());
        return null;
     }
     catch(JSchException jschX)
     {
        logWarning(jschX.getMessage());
        return null;
     }

     return outputBuffer.toString();
  }

  public void close()
  {
     sesConnection.disconnect();
  }

  }

For testing.

  /**
     * Test of sendCommand method, of class SSHManager.
     */
  @Test
  public void testSendCommand()
  {
     System.out.println("sendCommand");
     
     /**
      * YOU MUST CHANGE THE FOLLOWING
      * FILE_NAME: A FILE IN THE DIRECTORY
      * USER: LOGIN USER NAME
      * PASSWORD: PASSWORD FOR THAT USER
      * HOST: IP ADDRESS OF THE SSH SERVER
     **/
     String command = "ls FILE_NAME";
     String userName = "USER";
     String password = "PASSWORD";
     String connectionIP = "HOST";
     SSHManager instance = new SSHManager(userName, password, connectionIP, "");
     String errorMessage = instance.connect();

     if(errorMessage != null)
     {
        System.out.println(errorMessage);
        fail();
     }

     String expResult = "FILE_NAME\n";
     // call sendCommand for each command and the output 
     //(without prompts) is returned
     String result = instance.sendCommand(command);
     // close only after all commands are sent
     instance.close();
     assertEquals(expResult, result);
  }

This is a shameless plug, but I'm just now writing some extensive Javadoc for JSch.

Also, there is now a Manual in the JSch Wiki (written mainly by me).

---

About the original question, there is not really an example for handling the streams. Reading/writing a stream is done as always.

But there simply can't be a sure way to know when one command in a shell has finished just from reading the shell's output (this is independent of the SSH protocol).

If the shell is interactive, i.e. it has a terminal attached, it will usually print a prompt, which you could try to recognize. But at least theoretically this prompt string could also occur in normal output from a command. If you want to be sure, open individual exec channels for each command instead of using a shell channel. The shell channel is mainly used for interactive use by a human user, I think.

Usage:

String remoteCommandOutput = exec("ssh://user:pass@host/work/dir/path", "ls -t | head -n1");
String remoteShellOutput = shell("ssh://user:pass@host/work/dir/path", "ls");
shell("ssh://user:pass@host/work/dir/path", "ls", System.out);
shell("ssh://user:pass@host", System.in, System.out);
sftp("file:/C:/home/file.txt", "ssh://user:pass@host/home");
sftp("ssh://user:pass@host/home/file.txt", "file:/C:/home");

Implementation:

import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkState;
import static java.lang.Thread.sleep;
import static org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils.getFullPath;
import static org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils.getName;
import static org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils.trim;

import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
import com.jcraft.jsch.Channel;
import com.jcraft.jsch.ChannelExec;
import com.jcraft.jsch.ChannelSftp;
import com.jcraft.jsch.ChannelShell;
import com.jcraft.jsch.JSch;
import com.jcraft.jsch.JSchException;
import com.jcraft.jsch.Session;
import com.jcraft.jsch.UIKeyboardInteractive;
import com.jcraft.jsch.UserInfo;
import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.Closeable;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.io.PipedInputStream;
import java.io.PipedOutputStream;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.net.URI;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Properties;

public final class SshUtils {

    private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SshUtils.class);
    private static final String SSH = "ssh";
    private static final String FILE = "file";

    private SshUtils() {
    }

    /**
     * <pre>
     * <code>
     * sftp("file:/C:/home/file.txt", "ssh://user:pass@host/home");
     * sftp("ssh://user:pass@host/home/file.txt", "file:/C:/home");
     * </code>
     *
     * <pre>
     *
     * @param fromUri
     *            file
     * @param toUri
     *            directory
     */
    public static void sftp(String fromUri, String toUri) {
        URI from = URI.create(fromUri);
        URI to = URI.create(toUri);

        if (SSH.equals(to.getScheme()) && FILE.equals(from.getScheme()))
            upload(from, to);
        else if (SSH.equals(from.getScheme()) && FILE.equals(to.getScheme()))
            download(from, to);
        else
            throw new IllegalArgumentException();
    }

    private static void upload(URI from, URI to) {
        try (SessionHolder<ChannelSftp> session = new SessionHolder<>("sftp", to);
                FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(new File(from))) {

            LOG.info("Uploading {} --> {}", from, session.getMaskedUri());
            ChannelSftp channel = session.getChannel();
            channel.connect();
            channel.cd(to.getPath());
            channel.put(fis, getName(from.getPath()));

        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Cannot upload file", e);
        }
    }

    private static void download(URI from, URI to) {
        File out = new File(new File(to), getName(from.getPath()));
        try (SessionHolder<ChannelSftp> session = new SessionHolder<>("sftp", from);
                OutputStream os = new FileOutputStream(out);
                BufferedOutputStream bos = new BufferedOutputStream(os)) {

            LOG.info("Downloading {} --> {}", session.getMaskedUri(), to);
            ChannelSftp channel = session.getChannel();
            channel.connect();
            channel.cd(getFullPath(from.getPath()));
            channel.get(getName(from.getPath()), bos);

        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Cannot download file", e);
        }
    }

    /**
     * <pre>
     * <code>
     * shell("ssh://user:pass@host", System.in, System.out);
     * </code>
     * </pre>
     */
    public static void shell(String connectUri, InputStream is, OutputStream os) {
        try (SessionHolder<ChannelShell> session = new SessionHolder<>("shell", URI.create(connectUri))) {
            shell(session, is, os);
        }
    }

    /**
     * <pre>
     * <code>
     * String remoteOutput = shell("ssh://user:pass@host/work/dir/path", "ls")
     * </code>
     * </pre>
     */
    public static String shell(String connectUri, String command) {
        ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        try {
            shell(connectUri, command, baos);
            return baos.toString();
        } catch (RuntimeException e) {
            LOG.warn(baos.toString());
            throw e;
        }
    }

    /**
     * <pre>
     * <code>
     * shell("ssh://user:pass@host/work/dir/path", "ls", System.out)
     * </code>
     * </pre>
     */
    public static void shell(String connectUri, String script, OutputStream out) {
        try (SessionHolder<ChannelShell> session = new SessionHolder<>("shell", URI.create(connectUri));
                PipedOutputStream pipe = new PipedOutputStream();
                PipedInputStream in = new PipedInputStream(pipe);
                PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(pipe)) {

            if (session.getWorkDir() != null)
                pw.println("cd " + session.getWorkDir());
            pw.println(script);
            pw.println("exit");
            pw.flush();

            shell(session, in, out);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }

    private static void shell(SessionHolder<ChannelShell> session, InputStream is, OutputStream os) {
        try {
            ChannelShell channel = session.getChannel();
            channel.setInputStream(is, true);
            channel.setOutputStream(os, true);

            LOG.info("Starting shell for " + session.getMaskedUri());
            session.execute();
            session.assertExitStatus("Check shell output for error details.");
        } catch (InterruptedException | JSchException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Cannot execute script", e);
        }
    }

    /**
     * <pre>
     * <code>
     * System.out.println(exec("ssh://user:pass@host/work/dir/path", "ls -t | head -n1"));
     * </code>
     * 
     * <pre>
     * 
     * @param connectUri
     * @param command
     * @return
     */
    public static String exec(String connectUri, String command) {
        try (SessionHolder<ChannelExec> session = new SessionHolder<>("exec", URI.create(connectUri))) {
            String scriptToExecute = session.getWorkDir() == null
                    ? command
                    : "cd " + session.getWorkDir() + "\n" + command;
            return exec(session, scriptToExecute);
        }
    }

    private static String exec(SessionHolder<ChannelExec> session, String command) {
        try (PipedOutputStream errPipe = new PipedOutputStream();
                PipedInputStream errIs = new PipedInputStream(errPipe);
                InputStream is = session.getChannel().getInputStream()) {

            ChannelExec channel = session.getChannel();
            channel.setInputStream(null);
            channel.setErrStream(errPipe);
            channel.setCommand(command);

            LOG.info("Starting exec for " + session.getMaskedUri());
            session.execute();
            String output = IOUtils.toString(is);
            session.assertExitStatus(IOUtils.toString(errIs));

            return trim(output);
        } catch (InterruptedException | JSchException | IOException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Cannot execute command", e);
        }
    }

    public static class SessionHolder<C extends Channel> implements Closeable {

        private static final int DEFAULT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT = 5000;
        private static final int DEFAULT_PORT = 22;
        private static final int TERMINAL_HEIGHT = 1000;
        private static final int TERMINAL_WIDTH = 1000;
        private static final int TERMINAL_WIDTH_IN_PIXELS = 1000;
        private static final int TERMINAL_HEIGHT_IN_PIXELS = 1000;
        private static final int DEFAULT_WAIT_TIMEOUT = 100;
        
        private String channelType;
        private URI uri;
        private Session session;
        private C channel;

        public SessionHolder(String channelType, URI uri) {
            this(channelType, uri, ImmutableMap.of("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no"));
        }

        public SessionHolder(String channelType, URI uri, Map<String, String> props) {
            this.channelType = channelType;
            this.uri = uri;
            this.session = newSession(props);
            this.channel = newChannel(session);
        }

        private Session newSession(Map<String, String> props) {
            try {
                Properties config = new Properties();
                config.putAll(props);

                JSch jsch = new JSch();
                Session newSession = jsch.getSession(getUser(), uri.getHost(), getPort());
                newSession.setPassword(getPass());
                newSession.setUserInfo(new User(getUser(), getPass()));
                newSession.setDaemonThread(true);
                newSession.setConfig(config);
                newSession.connect(DEFAULT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT);
                return newSession;
            } catch (JSchException e) {
                throw new RuntimeException("Cannot create session for " + getMaskedUri(), e);
            }
        }

        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
        private C newChannel(Session session) {
            try {
                Channel newChannel = session.openChannel(channelType);
                if (newChannel instanceof ChannelShell) {
                    ChannelShell channelShell = (ChannelShell) newChannel;
                    channelShell.setPtyType("ANSI", TERMINAL_WIDTH, TERMINAL_HEIGHT, TERMINAL_WIDTH_IN_PIXELS, TERMINAL_HEIGHT_IN_PIXELS);
                }
                return (C) newChannel;
            } catch (JSchException e) {
                throw new RuntimeException("Cannot create " + channelType + " channel for " + getMaskedUri(), e);
            }
        }

        public void assertExitStatus(String failMessage) {
            checkState(channel.getExitStatus() == 0, "Exit status %s for %s\n%s", channel.getExitStatus(), getMaskedUri(), failMessage);
        }

        public void execute() throws JSchException, InterruptedException {
            channel.connect();
            channel.start();
            while (!channel.isEOF())
                sleep(DEFAULT_WAIT_TIMEOUT);
        }

        public Session getSession() {
            return session;
        }

        public C getChannel() {
            return channel;
        }

        @Override
        public void close() {
            if (channel != null)
                channel.disconnect();
            if (session != null)
                session.disconnect();
        }

        public String getMaskedUri() {
            return uri.toString().replaceFirst(":[^:]*?@", "@");
        }

        public int getPort() {
            return uri.getPort() < 0 ? DEFAULT_PORT : uri.getPort();
        }

        public String getUser() {
            return uri.getUserInfo().split(":")[0];
        }

        public String getPass() {
            return uri.getUserInfo().split(":")[1];
        }

        public String getWorkDir() {
            return uri.getPath();
        }
    }

    private static class User implements UserInfo, UIKeyboardInteractive {

        private String user;
        private String pass;

        public User(String user, String pass) {
            this.user = user;
            this.pass = pass;
        }

        @Override
        public String getPassword() {
            return pass;
        }

        @Override
        public boolean promptYesNo(String str) {
            return false;
        }

        @Override
        public String getPassphrase() {
            return user;
        }

        @Override
        public boolean promptPassphrase(String message) {
            return true;
        }

        @Override
        public boolean promptPassword(String message) {
            return true;
        }

        @Override
        public void showMessage(String message) {
            // do nothing
        }

        @Override
        public String[] promptKeyboardInteractive(String destination, String name, String instruction, String[] prompt, boolean[] echo) {
            return null;
        }
    }
}

I struggled for half a day to get JSCH to work without using the System.in as the input stream to no avail. I tried Ganymed http://www.ganymed.ethz.ch/ssh2/ and had it going in 5 minutes. All the examples seem to be aimed at one usage of the app and none of the examples showed what i needed. Ganymed's example Basic.java Baaaboof Has everything i need.

using ssh from java should not be as hard as jsch makes it. you might be better off with sshj.

Note that Charity Leschinski's answer may have a bit of an issue when there is some delay in the response. eg:
lparstat 1 5 returns one response line and works,
lparstat 5 1 should return 5 lines, but only returns the first

I've put the command output while inside another ... I'm sure there is a better way, I had to do this as a quick fix

		while (commandOutput.available() > 0) {
			while (readByte != 0xffffffff) {
				outputBuffer.append((char) readByte);
				readByte = commandOutput.read();
			}
			try {Thread.sleep(1000);} catch (Exception ee) {}
		}

The gritty terminal was written to use Jsch, but with better handling and vt102 emulation. You can take a look at the code there. We use it and it works just fine.

I am using JSCH since about 2000 and still find it a good library to use. I agree it is not documented well enough but the provided examples seem good enough to understand that is required in several minutes, and user friendly Swing, while this is quite original approach, allows to test the example quickly to make sure it actually works. It is not always true that every good project needs three times more documentation than the amount of code written, and even when such is present, this not always helps to write faster a working prototype of your concept.

The example provided by Mykhaylo Adamovych is very thorough and exposes most of the major features of JSch. I packaged this code (with attribution, of course) into an open-source library called Remote Session. I added JavaDoc and custom exceptions, and I also provided a facility to specify custom session parameters (RemoteConfig).

One feature that Mykhaylo's code doesn't demonstrate is how to provide an "identity" for remote system interactions. This is critical if you're going to execute commands that require super-user access (i.e. - sudo). Remote Session adds this capability in its SessionHolder.newSession() implementation:

RemoteConfig remoteConfig = RemoteConfig.getConfig();
Path keyPath = remoteConfig.getKeyPath();

if (keyPath == null) {
    throw new RemoteCredentialsUnspecifiedException();
}

String keyPass = remoteConfig.getString(RemoteSettings.SSH_KEY_PASS.key());
if (keyPass != null) {
    Path pubPath = keyPath.resolveSibling(keyPath.getFileName() + ".pub");
    jsch.addIdentity(keyPath.toString(), pubPath.toString(), keyPass.getBytes());
} else {
    jsch.addIdentity(keyPath.toString());
}

Note that this behavior is bypassed if the remote system URL includes credentials.

Another feature that Remote Session demonstrates is how to provide a known-hosts file:

if ( ! remoteConfig.getBoolean(RemoteSettings.IGNORE_KNOWN_HOSTS.key())) {
    Path knownHosts = keyPath.resolveSibling("known_hosts");
    if (knownHosts.toFile().exists()) {
        jsch.setKnownHosts(knownHosts.toString());
    }
}

Remote Session also adds a ChannelStream class that encapsulates input/output operation for the channel attached to this session. This provides the ability to accumulate the output from the remote session until a specified prompt is received:

private boolean appendAndCheckFor(String prompt, StringBuilder input, Logger logger) throws InterruptedException, IOException {
    String recv = readChannel(false);
    if ( ! ((recv == null) || recv.isEmpty())) {
        input.append(recv);
        if (logger != null) {
            logger.debug(recv);
        }
        if (input.toString().contains(prompt)) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return !channel.isClosed();
}

Nothing too complicated, but this can greatly simplify the implementation of interactive remote operations.