Node.js ssh2-connect

The Node.js ssh2-connect package extends the ssh2 module to provide a simplified callback-back approach to initiate a new SSH connection.

Usage

The connect function return a promise. Its signature is await connect(options)

It also accept an optional callback function. In such case, its signature is connect(options, callback).

This package simplifies the creation of an SSH connection. For example, the original ssh2 code...

const ssh2 = require('ssh2')
const connection = new ssh2()
connection.on('error', function(err){
  // Handle the connection error
  connection.end()
})
connection.on('ready', function(){
  // Work with the connection
  connection.end()
})
connection.connect({
  host: 'localhost',
  user: 'milou',
  password: 'wafwaf'
})

...is simplified to:

const connect = require('ssh2-connect')
(async () => {
  try{
    const ssh = await connect({
      host: 'localhost',
      username: 'david',
      private_key_path: '~/.ssh/id_rsa'
    })
    // Work with the connection
    ssh.end()
  }catch (err){
    // Handle the connection error
  }
})()

Options

Options are inherited from the ssh2 Connection.prototype.connect function with a few additions:

• username
  The username used to initiate the connection, default to the current environment user.
• privateKeyPath
  Path of the file containing the private key, true to enable auto-discovery or false to disable auto-discovery, default to true.
• retry Attempt to reconnect multiple times, default to 1.
• wait Time to wait in milliseconds between each retry, default to 2000.

Note, the "privateKeyPath" option is provided as a conveniency to read the private key and fill the "privateKey" property.

Additionally, all options may be provided in camalize (the default in ssh2) or underscore form. For example, both "privateKey" and "private_key" would be interprated the same.

Installation

This is OSS and licensed under the new BSD license.

npm install ssh2-connect

Examples

The example is using both the "ssh2-connect" and "ssh2-fs" modules.

const connect = require('ssh2-connect');
const fs = require('ssh2-fs');
// Open the connection
connect({host: 'localhost'}, function(err, ssh){
  // Create a directory
  fs.mkdir(ssh, '/tmp/a_dir', (err, stdout, stderr){
    console.log(stdout);
  });
});

Compare this to the more verbose alternative using the original ssh2 module.

ssh2 = require('ssh2');
fs = require('ssh2-fs');
connection = new ssh2();
connection.on('error', function(err){
  connection.end()
});
connection.on('ready', function(){
  fs.mkdir(connection, '/tmp/a_dir', (err, stdout, stderr){
    console.log(stdout);
  });
});
connection.connect({host: 'localhost'});

Development

Tests are executed with mocha. To install it, simple run npm install, it will install mocha and its dependencies in your project "node_modules" directory.

To run the tests:

npm test

To generate the JavaScript files:

npm run build

The test suite is run online with Travis against several Node.js version.

Contributors

• David Worms: https://github.com/wdavidw

This package is developed by Adaltas.