sending control charactors to external process in Java - java

I am connecting to "/bin/bash" in ubuntu using:
process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);
Here cmd is a String with different commands that i read and write from process.
Now i have come across a situation, where i login to remote machiens using ssh and while reading writing information to ext process, for loggin out from remote machine, i have to send control character like:
CTRL + ] in order to logout the session gracefully and come back to my local machine. Assuming the cmd is a String type, how can i write this CTRL chracter to the process?

Control-] in ASCII is equivalent to 035 octal. In Java you can represent this as "\035".
Writer writer = new OutputStreamWriter(process.getOutputStream());
writer.write("\035");
writer.flush();
It is also equivalent to decimal value of 29 so if you can write a byte with a value of 29 then that will work as well.
OutputStream os = process.getOutputStream();
os.write(29);
os.flush();
I assume Control-] has to do with the remote program. You are talking about telnet? However writing "exit\n" will also close the remote bash.
Writer writer = new OutputStreamWriter(process.getOutputStream());
writer.write("exit\n");
writer.flush();
You can also, obviously, close the OutputStream which closes the STDIN of the remote process.
os.close();

Related

J2ssh get empty input stream

I'm trying to read data from the server with SSH protocol. For this, I'm using the j2ssh library. My server connects with the other server in ssh without any problem. The problem is when I try to read any data from the shell command line. Whatever "command" I send to program "read = in.read(buffer)" never get any data, I tried with "ls" with "cat filename.txt" and other commands.
Only one command works fine and is "tail -f filename.txt". With this command, I can see the buffer is not empty, this contain the text of file, but the tail command does not close and while listening, sends the program in loop.
Can Anyone help me to know why I can't get any data from othere command?
This is my code:
private String exec(String cmd) throws SSHHandlerException {
String result = null;
session = ssh.openSessionChannel();
if(session.startShell())
{
session.getOutputStream().write((cmd+"\n").getBytes());
session.getOutputStream().close();
result = read(session,log);
}
session.close();
ssh.disconnect();
return result;
}
private static String read(SessionChannelClient session, ProcessLogger log) throws Exception{
byte buffer[] = new byte[255];
int read;
StringBuffer out=new StringBuffer();
InputStream in = session.getInputStream();
while((read = in.read(buffer)) > 0) {
out.append(new String(buffer, 0, read));
}
return out.toString();
}
If your goal is to transfer files, you should be using an SFTP client instead. SFTP is exactly what you're looking for: a file transfer protocol on top of SSH. It's much, much more efficient than using some command on the host and redirecting the stream.
J2SSH has an SftpClient implementation that can be constructed with an SshClient. Just use one of the get methods. Javadocs are here.
Edit after learning that you're not trying to transfer files:
You need to request a pseudo-terminal before you start the shell. From the docs:
The remote process may require a pseudo terminal. Call this method before executing a command or starting a shell.
Also, because it appears that you're using a Linux environment, I would recommend using terminal type "xterm" rather than their example of "vt100".
The reason that tail was working and not the other commands was because you were calling tail interactively. The interactive command creates its own pseudo-terminal of sorts. If, instead, you call tail -n 16 filename.txt then you will get the same results as with the other commands because it won't be interactive.

Java pattern for subsequent Input & OutputStream

Hello stack overflow world, I've been struggling with the most straight forward and common problem within Java IO, for some time, and now need your help to tackle it.
Check out this piece of code I have in a try block, within a thread.run():
// connect to client socket, and setup own server socket
clientSocket = new Socket(serverHostname, CLIENT_PORT);
//send a test command to download a file
String downloadFileName = "sample.txt";
DataOutputStream dataOutputStream = new DataOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
System.out.println("Sending a request to download file : " + downloadFileName + " from user: Arsa node"); //todo: replace with node user later
dataOutputStream.writeUTF("D/sample.txt");
//close socket if host isn't detected anymore, and if socket doesn't become null suddenly
dataOutputStream.flush();
dataOutputStream.close();
System.out.println("****File has been sent****");
in = new DataInputStream(clientSocket.getInputStream());
byte[] retrievedFileData = new byte[8036];
if (in.readInt() > 0) {
System.out.println("Starting file download!");
in.read(retrievedFileData);
System.out.println("File data has been read, converting to file now");
//closing input stream will close socket also
in.close();
}
clientSocket.close();
2 Main questions that have been confusing me to death:
Why does dataOutputStream.close() need to be run for writeUTF to actually send my string to the server socket, I find that when I don't have dos.close(), data isn't retrieved on the other side, further because I close it, I no longer can read from the socket - as it seems the socket connection becomes closed when the Output Stream is previously closed...
What's a better way, following some sort of pattern to do this? For context, all I'm trying to do is write the filename I'm looking to download to my client, then read the response right away, which I expect to be bytes with the file, any error handling I will consider as a part of my development.
Overall, it shouldn't be complicated to write something to a socket, then read and ingest it's response...which doesn't seem to be the case here,
any help would be greatly appreciated! If the ServerSocket code snippet is needed I'm happy to share.
The observed behavior is just a side-effect of close(), as it calls flush() before closing to make sure any buffered data is sent. To solve your problem, you need to call the flush() method instead of closing.
This behavior is not unique to DataOutputStream: a lot of other OutputStream (or Writer) implementations apply buffering, and you will need to flush when you want to ensure the data is sent to the client, written to disk or otherwise processed.
BTW: The DataOutputStream and DataInputStream is for a very specific type of data serialization protocol that is particular to Java. You may want to consider carefully if this is the right protocol to use.

java.net.Socket > outputStream > BufferedOutputStream flush() confirmation

is there a way of knowing when or whether the flush() method of a BufferedOutputStream thread has finished successfully? In my case I'm using it for sending a simple string through a java.net.Socket. In the following code, the flush() method is run in parallel with the BufferedReader.read() method and the socket output is immediately blocked by the input read resulting in something that resembles a deadlock. What I would like to do is wait for the output to end, and then start reading the input.
Socket sk = new Socket("192.168.0.112", 3000);
BufferedOutputStream bo = new BufferedOutputStream(sk.getOutputStream());
bo.write(message.getBytes());
bo.flush();
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(sk.getInputStream()));
String line = br.readLine();
if (line.equals("ack")) {
System.out.println("ack");
}
sk.close();
Update
ServerSocket:
ServerSocket ss = new ServerSocket(3000);
System.out.println("server socket open");
while (true) {
Socket sk = ss.accept();
System.out.println("new connection");
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(sk.getInputStream()));
String line = br.readLine();
System.out.println("received line: " + line);
BufferedOutputStream bo = new BufferedOutputStream(sk.getOutputStream());
bo.write("ack".getBytes()); bo.flush();
sk.close();
}
Update:
#Global Variable - the reason that read was blocking the socket is that it was waiting for the \n, indeed. Using
bo.write("ack\n".getBytes());
instead of
bo.write("ack".getBytes());
made it work.
Regarding the initial question, is there a way of knowing if flush() method has finished successfully, #Stephen C provided the answer:
there is no way to know that based on the Socket or OutputStream APIs.
The normal way to get that sort of assurance is to have the remote
application send an "reply" in response, and read it in the local
side.
This "reply" is implemented in the code sample and it works.
Is there a way of knowing when or whether the flush() method of a BufferedOutputStream thread has finished successfully?
It depends on what you mean by "finished successfully".
The flush() method ensures that all unsent data in the pipeline has been pushed as far as the operating system network stack. When that is done, then you could say that flush() has finished successfully. The way that you know that that has happened is that the flush() call returns.
On the other hand, if you want some assurance that the data has (all) been delivered to the remote machine, or that the remote application has read it (all) ... there is no way to know that based on the Socket or OutputStream APIs. The normal way to get that sort of assurance is to have the remote application send an "reply" in response, and read it in the local side.
In the following code, the flush() method is run in parallel with the BufferedReader.read() method and the socket output is immediately blocked by the input read resulting in something that resembles a deadlock.
The code that you are talking about is basically the correct approach. The way to wait for the response is to read it like that.
If it is not working, then you need to compare what the client and server side are doing:
Is the server waiting for the client to send something more? Maybe an end of line sequence?
Did the server sends the response?
Did it flush() the response?
A mismatch between what the client and server are doing can lead to a form or deadlock, but the solution is to fix the mismatch. Waiting for some kind of hypothetical confirmation of the flush() is not the answer.
UPDATE
The problem is indeed a mismatch. For example, the server writes "ack" but the client expects "ack\n". The same happens in the client -> server case ... unless message always ends with a newline.
Your code is reading reader.readLine() . Are your writing \n when writing? You may want to append \n to the string your are writing.
I tried to reproduce your problem. First, I ran in to some kind of blocking state too, until I realized, I was using readLine at Server-side, too. But the message I was sending did not have a concluding \n. Therefore, the serversocket was still waiting at its InputStream without sending the client the ACK through its OutputStream. I think, #Global Variable is right.

Console program doesn't react on sending \n to stdin

I'm writing GUI using JAVA for a console program. It starts and works well, but when i send "\n" or "\r\n" to it's stdin it doesn't react as it reacts if i simply start this program in Terminal and press "Enter".
This code is used to start process:
String cmd="example.exe";
process = new ProcessBuilder(cmd).start();
And this code is used to send "\n"
OutputStream outputStream = process.getOutputStream();
outputStream.write("\n".getBytes());
outputStream.flush();
In other thread i'm trying to read from this process
while ((line = is.readLine()) != null && !Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
...
}
How can i properly send "\n" to receive information from the process?
Update:
I need to send a new line symbol. Or "Press Enter".
I read out and error, both are empty.
Application always reports it's status as reaction to pressing enter. So no reaction is a bug.
Presumably you are expecting the newline written to outputStream to trigger something that you can read using is.
Here are a couple of possible causes:
You could be reading from the wrong stream. The external program might be writing to "standard error" and you are reading "standard output" or vice-versa.
The external application might be failing to flush. For example, it (or the I/O library it uses) might only flush output after each newline if the output is directed to an interactive output stream (e.g. a "console"). The pipe connecting program output to your JVM might not show up as interactive.
These are only guesses ...
If I was trying to debug this, I would try to determine whether the problem is that the newline doesn't get to example.exe, that the response doesn't get written / flushed by example.exe, or that the Java side is failing to read it ... for some reason.

Access running java program from shell command

I am looking for a way to access running java program from command line. The best woud be something that does the following:
Starting java app:
bash$java -jar MyBundle.jar App
Accessing app:
bash$test.sh param1 param2
So, test.sh calls App from MyBundle.jar somehow and passes values param1 & param2.
Important: I am looking for very fast approach. App hold database connection and it is very expensive to start App every time I need access do DB.
I need solution that will work in Ubuntu and Debian. If it will work on Mac - great.
Any help is appreciated!
I think you need to take a client-server approach. You app is the server, it runs as a background process and listens for connections on some port. And your client makes requests to the server and gets back the response.
A fast and simple way of implementing this in java would be to wrap your app in the Jetty servlet container. You could set it up to return JSON responses for example, which are easy to process.
It would be quite straightforward to open a TCP/IP socket and use netcat from the shell.
Java code
final ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(9050);
while (true) {
final Socket socket = serverSocket.accept();
java.util.logging.Logger.getAnonymousLogger().info("Accepted");
final BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
socket.getInputStream()));
final String input = br.readLine();
final BufferedWriter bw = new BufferedWriter(
new OutputStreamWriter(socket.getOutputStream()));
bw.write("You said [" + input + "]");
bw.flush();
socket.close();
}
Shell code
echo 'bla' | nc localhost 9050
You'd need to muck around with threads to keep the sockets open to serve multiple requests.

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