SSH library for Java

Question

Does anyone have an example of an SSH library connection using Java.

Answer 1

The Java Secure Channel (JSCH) is a very popular library, used by maven, ant and eclipse. It is open source with a BSD style license.

Answer 2

Update: The GSOC project and the code there isn't active, but this is: https://github.com/hierynomus/sshj

hierynomus took over as maintainer since early 2015. Here is the older, no longer maintained, Github link:

https://github.com/shikhar/sshj

---

There was a GSOC project:

http://code.google.com/p/commons-net-ssh/

Code quality seem to be better than JSch, which, while a complete and working implementation, lacks documentation. Project page spots an upcoming beta release, last commit to the repository was mid-august.

Compare the APIs:

http://code.google.com/p/commons-net-ssh/

    SSHClient ssh = new SSHClient();
    //ssh.useCompression(); 
    ssh.loadKnownHosts();
    ssh.connect("localhost");
    try {
        ssh.authPublickey(System.getProperty("user.name"));
        new SCPDownloadClient(ssh).copy("ten", "/tmp");
    } finally {
        ssh.disconnect();
    }

http://www.jcraft.com/jsch/

Session session = null;
Channel channel = null;

try {

JSch jsch = new JSch();
session = jsch.getSession(username, host, 22);
java.util.Properties config = new java.util.Properties();
config.put("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");
session.setConfig(config);
session.setPassword(password);
session.connect();

// exec 'scp -f rfile' remotely
String command = "scp -f " + remoteFilename;
channel = session.openChannel("exec");
((ChannelExec) channel).setCommand(command);

// get I/O streams for remote scp
OutputStream out = channel.getOutputStream();
InputStream in = channel.getInputStream();

channel.connect();

byte[] buf = new byte[1024];

// send '\0'
buf[0] = 0;
out.write(buf, 0, 1);
out.flush();

while (true) {
    int c = checkAck(in);
    if (c != 'C') {
        break;
    }

    // read '0644 '
    in.read(buf, 0, 5);

    long filesize = 0L;
    while (true) {
        if (in.read(buf, 0, 1) < 0) {
            // error
            break;
        }
        if (buf[0] == ' ') {
            break;
        }
        filesize = filesize * 10L + (long) (buf[0] - '0');
    }

    String file = null;
    for (int i = 0;; i++) {
        in.read(buf, i, 1);
        if (buf[i] == (byte) 0x0a) {
            file = new String(buf, 0, i);
            break;
        }
    }

    // send '\0'
    buf[0] = 0;
    out.write(buf, 0, 1);
    out.flush();

    // read a content of lfile
    FileOutputStream fos = null;

    fos = new FileOutputStream(localFilename);
    int foo;
    while (true) {
        if (buf.length < filesize) {
            foo = buf.length;
        } else {
            foo = (int) filesize;
        }
        foo = in.read(buf, 0, foo);
        if (foo < 0) {
            // error
            break;
        }
        fos.write(buf, 0, foo);
        filesize -= foo;
        if (filesize == 0L) {
            break;
        }
    }
    fos.close();
    fos = null;

    if (checkAck(in) != 0) {
        System.exit(0);
    }

    // send '\0'
    buf[0] = 0;
    out.write(buf, 0, 1);
    out.flush();

    channel.disconnect();
    session.disconnect();
}

} catch (JSchException jsche) {
    System.err.println(jsche.getLocalizedMessage());
} catch (IOException ioe) {
    System.err.println(ioe.getLocalizedMessage());
} finally {
    channel.disconnect();
    session.disconnect();
}

}

Answer 3

I just discovered sshj, which seems to have a much more concise API than JSCH (but it requires Java 6). The documentation is mostly by examples-in-the-repo at this point, and usually that's enough for me to look elsewhere, but it seems good enough for me to give it a shot on a project I just started.

Answer 4

Take a look at the very recently released SSHD, which is based on the Apache MINA project.

Answer 5

There is a brand new version of Jsch up on github: https://github.com/vngx/vngx-jsch Some of the improvements include: comprehensive javadoc, enhanced performance, improved exception handling, and better RFC spec adherence. If you wish to contribute in any way please open an issue or send a pull request.

Answer 6

http://code.google.com/p/connectbot/, Compile src\com\trilead\ssh2 on windows linux or android , it can create Local Port Forwarder or create Dynamic Port Forwarder or other else

Answer 7

I took miku's answer and jsch example code. I then had to download multiple files during the session and preserve original timestamps. This is my example code how to do it, probably many people find it usefull. Please ignore filenameHack() function its my own usecase.

package examples;

import com.jcraft.jsch.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;

public class ScpFrom2 {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Map<String,String> params = parseParams(args);
        if (params.isEmpty()) {
            System.err.println("usage: java ScpFrom2 "
                    + " user=myid password=mypwd"
                    + " host=myhost.com port=22"
                    + " encoding=<ISO-8859-1,UTF-8,...>"
                    + " \"remotefile1=/some/file.png\""
                    + " \"localfile1=file.png\""
                    + " \"remotefile2=/other/file.txt\""
                    + " \"localfile2=file.txt\""

            );
            return;
        }

        // default values
        if (params.get("port") == null)
            params.put("port", "22");
        if (params.get("encoding") == null)
            params.put("encoding", "ISO-8859-1"); //"UTF-8"

        Session session = null;
        try {
            JSch jsch=new JSch();
            session=jsch.getSession(
                    params.get("user"),  // myuserid
                    params.get("host"),  // my.server.com
                    Integer.parseInt(params.get("port")) // 22
            );
            session.setPassword( params.get("password") );
            session.setConfig("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no"); // do not prompt for server signature

            session.connect();

            // this is exec command and string reply encoding
            String encoding = params.get("encoding");

            int fileIdx=0;
            while(true) {
                fileIdx++;

                String remoteFile = params.get("remotefile"+fileIdx);
                String localFile = params.get("localfile"+fileIdx);
                if (remoteFile == null || remoteFile.equals("")
                        || localFile == null || localFile.equals("") )
                    break;

                remoteFile = filenameHack(remoteFile);
                localFile  = filenameHack(localFile);

                try {
                    downloadFile(session, remoteFile, localFile, encoding);
                } catch (Exception ex) {
                    ex.printStackTrace();
                }
            }

        } catch(Exception ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            try{ session.disconnect(); } catch(Exception ex){}
        }
    }

    private static void downloadFile(Session session, 
            String remoteFile, String localFile, String encoding) throws Exception {
        // send exec command: scp -p -f "/some/file.png"
        // -p = read file timestamps
        // -f = From remote to local
        String command = String.format("scp -p -f \"%s\"", remoteFile); 
        System.console().printf("send command: %s%n", command);
        Channel channel=session.openChannel("exec");
        ((ChannelExec)channel).setCommand(command.getBytes(encoding));

        // get I/O streams for remote scp
        byte[] buf=new byte[32*1024];
        OutputStream out=channel.getOutputStream();
        InputStream in=channel.getInputStream();

        channel.connect();

        buf[0]=0; out.write(buf, 0, 1); out.flush(); // send '\0'

        // reply: T<mtime> 0 <atime> 0\n
        // times are in seconds, since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC 
        int c=checkAck(in);
        if(c!='T')
            throw new IOException("Invalid timestamp reply from server");

        long tsModified = -1; // millis
        for(int idx=0; ; idx++){
            in.read(buf, idx, 1);
            if(tsModified < 0 && buf[idx]==' ') {
                tsModified = Long.parseLong(new String(buf, 0, idx))*1000;
            } else if(buf[idx]=='\n') {
                break;
            }
        }

        buf[0]=0; out.write(buf, 0, 1); out.flush(); // send '\0'

        // reply: C0644 <binary length> <filename>\n
        // length is given as a text "621873" bytes
        c=checkAck(in);
        if(c!='C')
            throw new IOException("Invalid filename reply from server");

        in.read(buf, 0, 5); // read '0644 ' bytes

        long filesize=-1;
        for(int idx=0; ; idx++){
            in.read(buf, idx, 1);
            if(buf[idx]==' ') {
                filesize = Long.parseLong(new String(buf, 0, idx));
                break;
            }
        }

        // read remote filename
        String origFilename=null;
        for(int idx=0; ; idx++){
            in.read(buf, idx, 1);
            if(buf[idx]=='\n') {
                origFilename=new String(buf, 0, idx, encoding); // UTF-8, ISO-8859-1
                break;
            }
        }

        System.console().printf("size=%d, modified=%d, filename=%s%n"
                , filesize, tsModified, origFilename);

        buf[0]=0; out.write(buf, 0, 1); out.flush(); // send '\0'

        // read binary data, write to local file
        FileOutputStream fos = null;
        try {
            File file = new File(localFile);
            fos = new FileOutputStream(file);
            while(filesize > 0) {
                int read = Math.min(buf.length, (int)filesize);
                read=in.read(buf, 0, read);
                if(read < 0)
                    throw new IOException("Reading data failed");

                fos.write(buf, 0, read);
                filesize -= read;
            }
            fos.close(); // we must close file before updating timestamp
            fos = null;
            if (tsModified > 0)
                file.setLastModified(tsModified);               
        } finally {
            try{ if (fos!=null) fos.close(); } catch(Exception ex){}
        }

        if(checkAck(in) != 0)
            return;

        buf[0]=0; out.write(buf, 0, 1); out.flush(); // send '\0'
        System.out.println("Binary data read");     
    }

    private static int checkAck(InputStream in) throws IOException {
        // b may be 0 for success
        //          1 for error,
        //          2 for fatal error,
        //          -1
        int b=in.read();
        if(b==0) return b;
        else if(b==-1) return b;
        if(b==1 || b==2) {
            StringBuilder sb=new StringBuilder();
            int c;
            do {
                c=in.read();
                sb.append((char)c);
            } while(c!='\n');
            throw new IOException(sb.toString());
        }
        return b;
    }


    /**
     * Parse key=value pairs to hashmap.
     * @param args
     * @return
     */
    private static Map<String,String> parseParams(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Map<String,String> params = new HashMap<String,String>();
        for(String keyval : args) {
            int idx = keyval.indexOf('=');
            params.put(
                    keyval.substring(0, idx),
                    keyval.substring(idx+1)
            );
        }
        return params;
    }

    private static String filenameHack(String filename) {
        // It's difficult reliably pass unicode input parameters 
        // from Java dos command line.
        // This dirty hack is my very own test use case. 
        if (filename.contains("${filename1}"))
            filename = filename.replace("${filename1}", "Korilla ABC ÅÄÖ.txt");
        else if (filename.contains("${filename2}"))
            filename = filename.replace("${filename2}", "test2 ABC ÅÄÖ.txt");           
        return filename;
    }

}