Develop Reference

Command output is corrupted when executed using Python Paramiko exec_command

I'm a software tester, trying to verify that the log on a remote QNX (a BSD variant) machine will contain the correct entries after specific actions are taken. I am able to list the contents of the directory in which the log resides, and use that information in the command to read (really want to use tail -n XX <file>) the file. So far, I always get a "(No such file or directory)" when trying to read the file.
We are using Froglogic Squish for automated testing, because the Windows UI (that interacts with the server piece on QNX) is built using Qt extensions for standard Windows elements. Squish uses Python 2.7, so I am using Python 2.7.
I am using paramiko for the SSH connection to the QNX server. This has worked great for sending commands to the simulator piece that also runs on the QNX server.
So, here's the code. Some descriptive names have been changed to avoid upsetting my employer.
import sys
import time
import select
sys.path.append(r"C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages")
sys.path.append(r"C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor")
import paramiko
# Import SSH configuration variables
ssh_host = 'vvv.xxx.yyy.zzz'
thelog_dir = "/logs/the/"
ssh_user = 'un'
ssh_pw = 'pw'
def execute_Command(fullCmd):
outptLines = []
#
# Try to connect to the host.
# Retry a few times if it fails.
#
i = 1
while True:
try:
ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()
ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
ssh.connect(ssh_host, 22, ssh_user, ssh_pw)
break
except paramiko.AuthenticationException:
log ("Authentication failed when connecting to %s" % ssh_host)
return 1
except:
log ("Could not SSH to %s, waiting for it to start" % ssh_host)
i += 1
time.sleep(2)
# If we could not connect within time limit
if i == 30:
log ("Could not connect to %s. Giving up" % ssh_host)
return 1
# Send the command (non-blocking?)
stdin, stdout, stderr = ssh.exec_command(fullCmd, get_pty=True)
for line in iter(stdout.readline, ""):
outptLines.append(line)
#
# Disconnect from the host
#
ssh.close()
return outptLines
def get_Latest_Log():
fullCmd = "ls -1 %s | grep the_2" %thelog_dir
files = execute_Command(fullCmd)
theFile = files[-1]
return theFile
def main():
numLines = 20
theLog = get_Latest_Log()
print("\n\nThe latest log is %s\n\n" %theLog)
fullCmd = "cd /logs/the; tail -n 20 /logs/the/%s" %theLog
#fullCmd = "tail -n 20 /logs/the/%s" %theLog
print fullCmd
logLines = execute_Command(fullCmd)
for line in logLines:
print line
if __name__ == "__main__":
# execute only if run as a script
main()
I have tried to read the file using both tail and cat. I have also tried to get and open the file using Paramiko's SFTP client.
In all cases, the response of trying to read the file fails -- despite the fact that listing the contents of the directory works fine. (?!) And BTW, the log file is supposed to be readable by 'world'. Permissions are -rw-rw-r--.
The output I get is:
"C:\Users\xsat086\Documents\paramikoTest>python SSH_THE_MsgChk.py
The latest log is the_20210628_115455_205.log
cd /logs/the; tail -n 20 /logs/the/the_20210628_115455_205.log
(No such file or directory)the/the_20210628_115455_205.log"
The file name is correct. If I copy and paste the tail command into an interactive SSH session with the QNX server, it works fine.
Is it something to do with the 'non-interactive' nature of this method of sending commands? I read that some implementations of SSH are built upon a command that offers a very limited environment. I don't see how that would impact this tail command.
Or am I doing something stupid in this code?

I cannot really explain completely, why you get the results you get.
But in general a corrupted output is a result of enabling and not handling terminal emulation. You enable the terminal emulation using get_pty=True. Remove it. You should not use the terminal emulation, when automating command execution.
Related question:
Is there a simple way to get rid of junk values that come when you SSH using Python's Paramiko library and fetch output from CLI of a remote machine?

Trying to connect to ftp server with a firewall proxy using ftplib python

Right now, I'm connecting to the ftp in bash using
echo "
user $USER1 $PASS1
user $USER2 $PASS2
user $USER3 $PASS3"|ftp -n $FTPSERVER
I tried to handle this in python using
ftp = ftplib.FTP(SERVER)
ftp.sendcmd("user {} {}".format(USER1, PASS1))
ftp.sendcmd("user {} {}".format(USER2, PASS2))
...
When I connect using bash, the output is
However, when I try using python, the first line only gives output "331 Password: " and if I send anymore commands, it gives the error Please supply password with PASS command.
Also, I'm not sure if it's relevant but $USER2 and $PASS2 have # in them with $PASS2 beginning with it.

How to keep paramiko ssh session open after loggin in using python?

I am trying to ssh to a test cisco router in a test environment using python paramiko, and run cisco commands in that test router.
Everything works great except for 1 small detail.
After running the script I want the ssh session to remain open. (so I can run other commands manually).
I want to keep the ssh session open until I type "exit"
I found another link with a similar issue but I cant understand the solution.
(See here Python ssh - keep connection open after script terminates)
I would appreciate if someone can help me out here
My code
import paramiko
import time
def ssh_session(ip):
try:
session = paramiko.SSHClient() #Open the session
session.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
session.connect(ip, username = "ciscouser1", password = "password")
connection = session.invoke_shell()
####Running Cisco IOS commands###
connection.send("enable\n")
connection.send("password1") #sending
connection.send("\n")
connection.send("configure terminal\n\n")
time.sleep(1)
connection.send("do show ip int brief\n")
time.sleep(1)
except paramiko.AuthenticationException:
print "wrong credentials"
ssh_session("10.10.10.1")

The session timeout would be controlled by the SSH server. To the best of my knowledge, the only way to keep your session alive on the client side is to not be inactive, which can be accomplished by sending null packets. As to how to do this specifically with paramiko I am not certain. Perhaps you could send some kind of dummy command (or maybe even an empty string?) every so often?

Connecting to splunk server using python script then use this a in robotframework test

I am new to python and have run in to a problem with the following.
This is a code snippet from the Splunk api, thats used to connect to a splunk server then print the installed apps.
import splunklib.client as client
HOST = "server.splunk"
PORT = 8089
USERNAME = "UserABC"
PASSWORD = "Passw000rd"
# Create a Service instance and log in
service = client.connect(
host=HOST,
port=PORT,
username=USERNAME,
password=PASSWORD)
# Print installed apps to the console to verify login
for app in service.apps:
print app.name
I've tried it on my system in cmd and it works fine. However I intend to use this function in a Robot Framework test so the function needs to be defined in order to have a keyword I can use. I'm guessing something like the following:
import splunklib.client as client
def setServer(HOST, PORT, USERNAME, PASSWORD):
HOST = "server.splunk"
PORT = 8089
USERNAME = "UserABC"
PASSWORD = "Passw000rd"
service = client.connect(host=HOST,port=PORT,username=USERNAME,password=PASSWORD)
for app in service.apps:
print app.name
print ("\n")
My problem is when I run this nothing is printed to CMD at all. Any ideas
Thanks

A print in Python library is not displayed on the console of Robot Framework, that is the expected behaviour. If you want to check that the piece of code was run and the print was done, check the log.html produced by Robot. It should contain your print. Then if you really want to display something on Robot Console, then you have to use Log To Console keyword from your Robot Test. But as your print is in the python lib, you will have to import BuiltIn lib within your Python code. With all that, you should be fine.

Remote executing of program via xterm run using paramiko python ssh library

Flow of the program is:
Connect to OpenSSH server on Linux machine using Paramiko library
Open X11 session
Run xterm executable
Run some other program (e.g. Firefox) by typing executable name in the terminal and running it.
I would be grateful if someone can explain how to cause some executable to run in a terminal which was open by using the following code and provide sample source code (source):
import select
import sys
import paramiko
import Xlib.support.connect as xlib_connect
import os
import socket
import subprocess
# run xming
XmingProc = subprocess.Popen("C:/Program Files (x86)/Xming/Xming.exe :0 -clipboard -multiwindow")
ssh_client = paramiko.SSHClient()
ssh_client.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
ssh_client.connect(SSHServerIP, SSHServerPort, username=user, password=pwd)
transport = ssh_client.get_transport()
channelOppositeEdges = {}
local_x11_display = xlib_connect.get_display(os.environ['DISPLAY'])
inputSockets = []
def x11_handler(channel, (src_addr, src_port)):
local_x11_socket = xlib_connect.get_socket(*local_x11_display[:3])
inputSockets.append(local_x11_socket)
inputSockets.append(channel)
channelOppositeEdges[local_x11_socket.fileno()] = channel
channelOppositeEdges[channel.fileno()] = local_x11_socket
transport._queue_incoming_channel(channel)
session = transport.open_session()
inputSockets.append(session)
session.request_x11(handler = x11_handler)
session.exec_command('xterm')
transport.accept()
while not session.exit_status_ready():
readable, writable, exceptional = select.select(inputSockets,[],[])
if len(transport.server_accepts) > 0:
transport.accept()
for sock in readable:
if sock is session:
while session.recv_ready():
sys.stdout.write(session.recv(4096))
while session.recv_stderr_ready():
sys.stderr.write(session.recv_stderr(4096))
else:
try:
data = sock.recv(4096)
counterPartSocket = channelOppositeEdges[sock.fileno()]
counterPartSocket.sendall(data)
except socket.error:
inputSockets.remove(sock)
inputSockets.remove(counterPartSocket)
del channelOppositeEdges[sock.fileno()]
del channelOppositeEdges[counterPartSocket.fileno()]
sock.close()
counterPartSocket.close()
print 'Exit status:', session.recv_exit_status()
while session.recv_ready():
sys.stdout.write(session.recv(4096))
while session.recv_stderr_ready():
sys.stdout.write(session.recv_stderr(4096))
session.close()
XmingProc.terminate()
XmingProc.wait()
I was thinking about running the program in child thread, while the thread running the xterm is waiting for the child to terminate.

Well, this is a bit of a hack, but hey.
What you can do on the remote end is the following: Inside the xterm, you run netcat, listen to any data coming in on some port, and pipe whatever you get into bash. It's not quite the same as typing it into xterm direclty, but it's almost as good as typing it into bash directly, so I hope it'll get you a bit closer to your goal. If you really want to interact with xterm directly, you might want to read this.
For example:
terminal 1:
% nc -l 3333 | bash
terminal 2 (type echo hi here):
% nc localhost 3333
echo hi
Now you should see hi pop out of the first terminal. Now try it with xterm&. It worked for me.
Here's how you can automate this in Python. You may want to add some code that enables the server to tell the client when it's ready, rather than using the silly time.sleeps.
import select
import sys
import paramiko
import Xlib.support.connect as xlib_connect
import os
import socket
import subprocess
# for connecting to netcat running remotely
from multiprocessing import Process
import time
# data
import getpass
SSHServerPort=22
SSHServerIP = "localhost"
# get username/password interactively, or use some other method..
user = getpass.getuser()
pwd = getpass.getpass("enter pw for '" + user + "': ")
NETCAT_PORT = 3333
FIREFOX_CMD="/path/to/firefox &"
#FIREFOX_CMD="xclock&"#or this :)
def run_stuff_in_xterm():
time.sleep(5)
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET6 if ":" in SSHServerIP else socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect((SSHServerIP, NETCAT_PORT))
s.send("echo \"Hello there! Are you watching?\"\n")
s.send(FIREFOX_CMD + "\n")
time.sleep(30)
s.send("echo bye bye\n")
time.sleep(2)
s.close()
# run xming
XmingProc = subprocess.Popen("C:/Program Files (x86)/Xming/Xming.exe :0 -clipboard -multiwindow")
ssh_client = paramiko.SSHClient()
ssh_client.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
ssh_client.connect(SSHServerIP, SSHServerPort, username=user, password=pwd)
transport = ssh_client.get_transport()
channelOppositeEdges = {}
local_x11_display = xlib_connect.get_display(os.environ['DISPLAY'])
inputSockets = []
def x11_handler(channel, (src_addr, src_port)):
local_x11_socket = xlib_connect.get_socket(*local_x11_display[:3])
inputSockets.append(local_x11_socket)
inputSockets.append(channel)
channelOppositeEdges[local_x11_socket.fileno()] = channel
channelOppositeEdges[channel.fileno()] = local_x11_socket
transport._queue_incoming_channel(channel)
session = transport.open_session()
inputSockets.append(session)
session.request_x11(handler = x11_handler)
session.exec_command("xterm -e \"nc -l 0.0.0.0 %d | /bin/bash\"" % NETCAT_PORT)
p = Process(target=run_stuff_in_xterm)
transport.accept()
p.start()
while not session.exit_status_ready():
readable, writable, exceptional = select.select(inputSockets,[],[])
if len(transport.server_accepts) > 0:
transport.accept()
for sock in readable:
if sock is session:
while session.recv_ready():
sys.stdout.write(session.recv(4096))
while session.recv_stderr_ready():
sys.stderr.write(session.recv_stderr(4096))
else:
try:
data = sock.recv(4096)
counterPartSocket = channelOppositeEdges[sock.fileno()]
counterPartSocket.sendall(data)
except socket.error:
inputSockets.remove(sock)
inputSockets.remove(counterPartSocket)
del channelOppositeEdges[sock.fileno()]
del channelOppositeEdges[counterPartSocket.fileno()]
sock.close()
counterPartSocket.close()
p.join()
print 'Exit status:', session.recv_exit_status()
while session.recv_ready():
sys.stdout.write(session.recv(4096))
while session.recv_stderr_ready():
sys.stdout.write(session.recv_stderr(4096))
session.close()
XmingProc.terminate()
XmingProc.wait()
I tested this on a Mac, so I commented out the XmingProc bits and used /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox as FIREFOX_CMD (and xclock).
The above isn't exactly a secure setup, as anyone connecting to the port at the right time could run arbitrary code on your remote server, but it sounds like you're planning to use this for testing purposes anyway. If you want to improve the security, you could make netcat bind to 127.0.0.1 rather than 0.0.0.0, setup an ssh tunnel (run ssh -L3333:localhost:3333 username#remote-host.com to tunnel all traffic received locally on port 3333 to remote-host.com:3333), and let Python connect to ("localhost", 3333).
Now you can combine this with selenium for browser automation:
Follow the instructions from this page, i.e. download the selenium standalone server jar file, put it into /path/to/some/place (on the server), and pip install -U selenium (again, on the server).
Next, put the following code into selenium-example.py in /path/to/some/place:
#!/usr/bin/env python
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.common.exceptions import NoSuchElementException
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
import time
browser = webdriver.Firefox() # Get local session of firefox
browser.get("http://www.yahoo.com") # Load page
assert "Yahoo" in browser.title
elem = browser.find_element_by_name("p") # Find the query box
elem.send_keys("seleniumhq" + Keys.RETURN)
time.sleep(0.2) # Let the page load, will be added to the API
try:
browser.find_element_by_xpath("//a[contains(#href,'http://docs.seleniumhq.org')]")
except NoSuchElementException:
assert 0, "can't find seleniumhq"
browser.close()
and change the firefox command:
FIREFOX_CMD="cd /path/to/some/place && python selenium-example.py"
And watch firefox do a Yahoo search. You might also want to increase the time.sleep.
If you want to run more programs, you can do things like this before or after running firefox:
# start up xclock, wait for some time to pass, kill it.
s.send("xclock&\n")
time.sleep(1)
s.send("XCLOCK_PID=$!\n") # stash away the process id (into a bash variable)
time.sleep(30)
s.send("echo \"killing $XCLOCK_PID\"\n")
s.send("kill $XCLOCK_PID\n\n")
time.sleep(5)
If you want to do perform general X11 application control, I think you might need to write similar "driver applications", albeit using different libraries. You might want search for "x11 send {mouse|keyboard} events" to find more general approaches. That brings up these questions, but I'm sure there's lots more.
If the remote end isn't responding instantaneously, you might want to sniff your network traffic in Wireshark, and check whether or not TCP is batching up the data, rather than sending it line by line (the \n seems to help here, but I guess there's no guarantee). If this is the case, you might be out of luck, but nothing is impossible. I hope you don't need to go that far though ;-)
One more note: if you need to communicate with CLI programs' STDIN/STDOUT, you might want to look at expect scripting (e.g. using pexpect, or for simple cases you might be able to use subprocess.Popen.communicate](http://docs.python.org/2/library/subprocess.html#subprocess.Popen.communicate)).