ssh2_exec completely broken

[greenmoss]

Environment:

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=9.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=karmic
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 9.10"

$ dpkg -l libssh2-php
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-=================-=================-==================================================
ii libssh2-php 0.11.0-2 PHP Bindings for libssh2

Problem description:

I have a PHP script which attempts to do some SSH operations on another host. This script was originally running on a Gentoo machine, also version 0.11. It worked fine there, with code such as:

        $ssh_connection = ssh2_connect($ssl_host, 22);
        $stream = ssh2_exec($ssh_connection, "ls /etc/ssl/people/$user");
        stream_set_blocking($stream, true);
        $ssl_files = split("\n", stream_get_contents($stream));

On the Ubuntu host, the PHP script returns inconsistent results: sometimes $ssl_files returns nothing, sometimes a few things, sometimes everything. I get the same inconsistent results when trying several variations: fetch from stream using fread, pass in pty (third argument) as FALSE. At least one other person on the internet is also experiencing this problem:

http://www.frostjedi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=13223

Please fix this; this whole package is next to useless unless ssh2_exec works.

[igorojas (igorojas)]

I am experiencing the same thing here. Is either hit or miss with ssh2_exec on Ubuntu 9.10. Totally useless.

[v. (tishma)]

Hi,
I've had the same problem for days (ubuntu server 9.10, php 5.2.10-2ubuntu6.4). I just installed 2 packages, and ssh2_exec appears to be working. The packages are:
 - libssh2-1-dbg
 - libssh2-1-dev

You can give it a shot. I couldn't break it so far.

Cheers
v.

[v. (tishma)]

Sry. My bad.

After more testing, it appears to be breaking again.

The fact that this kind of change increases the chances of successfully reading ssh2_exec standard output might give the idea why this happens to someone in the matter.

 $stream = ssh2_exec($ssh_connection, "ls /etc/ssl/people/$user ; echo > /dev/null"); //now more than 80% stream_get_contents return something