How do I change directories using Paramiko?

Question

Drush commands not executing using Paramiko

I posted the above question regarding a persistent error message that I receive using Paramiko. I do not think it is related to my next question, but it might be.

I can successfully connect to my server via SSH using Paramiko. I can execute commands like ls or pwd. What I can't seem to do is change directories. I can send the command "cd .." for example, but when I follow up with "pwd" it shows that I haven't changed directories. It just lists the initial directory I am in when I log in.

>>> stdin, stdout, stderr = myssh.exec_command("pwd")
>>> stdout.readlines()
['/big/dom/home/myid\n']
>>> stdin, stdout, stderr = myssh.exec_command("cd ../")
>>> stdout.readlines()
[]
>>> stdin, stdout, stderr = myssh.exec_command("pwd")
>>> stdout.readlines()
['/big/dom/home/myid\n']
>>>

Am I misunderstanding what is going on here? Should I not be able to change directories? Or if I can, should I be doing it in some other way than using exec_command?

Answer 1

This guy had it figured out: http://www.vertigrated.com/blog/2010/02/python-remote-ssh-with-paramiko/

You just have to send multiple commands with one exec_command, such as:

myssh.exec_command('cd ..; pwd')

Then stdout.readlines() will return the directory that you changed to.

Answer 2

As of version 2.1+ the method to change directories is sftp.chdir('path/to/directory')

Answer 3

Well paramiko creates an instance of shell and all the commands that you wish to execute in paramiko have to be given in that instance of shell only.

For example: Let us say I have some folder in the directory I am in.

folder1
folder2
folder3

Now if I want to cd into folder 1 and make a directory there what I would do is:

ssh.exec_command('cd folder1;mkdir folder4')

if you write it like:

ssh.exec_command('cd folder1')
ssh.exec_command('mkdir folder4')

you would get the result like

folder1
folder2
folder3
folder4

as those were two different instances of the shell and would be independent in their function.

Answer 4

A bit late with this one, but its possible to 'invoke_shell' and write to the standard input through a file.

Please see: https://stackoverflow.com/a/6203877/1861353

Seems a little bit heavyweight since you can just ';'.join(cmdlist) and send to the exec_command.