Description

As seen in this email on the paramiko ML, it looks like Paramiko offers an invoke_shell function which returns a Channel object, to which you can send data -- and apparently it acts like an interactive session.

However, send only returns the number of bytes successfully sent, not a return value; and the various methods for getting return values, such as recv_exit_status, appear to only work in tandem with exec_command (which is what we currently use.)

Worth investigating anyway, I can see this being a potentially useful option for folks who need serious shell-level persistence and are willing to forego the ability to get exit status during part of a session. Or, if we're lucky, I'm wrong and there is a reliable way to get "per-command" stdin/stdout/exit status -- though I rather doubt it.

TODO

• Exit shell at session close
• Hide and don't capture prompts
• Possibly hide remote command (though it might be nice not to, could save us the trouble of printing it ourselves. wrapped/real versions of command should still apply though -- maybe.)
• Reliably obtain return value, probably via echo $? or similar
• Hide login banners, other non command info. (Possibly by having Fabric keep track of whether it's currently executing anything and to hide the remote stderr/stdout if not?)

Originally submitted by Jeff Forcier (bitprophet) on 2009-11-06 at 10:10am EST

Relations

• Related to Improved prompt detection and passthrough #7: Improved prompt detection and passthrough

Closed as Wontfix on 2010-06-03 at 11:26pm EDT