>> How or can I hold the channel open ?
Channels are auto-closeable - i.e., try-with-resource can be used. In other
words, it won't close on your end unless you close it. However:
>> It seems that once I create and open and actually use the channel, it is
being closed without my knowledge.
You can only be responsible for your end - there is nothing you can do if
the peer decides to close it.
That being said, there is something many users forget - to consume the
input/output streams. Here is the right way to do this:
// Done once during 'main' start
SshClient client = SshClient.setupDefaultClient();
...extra configurations...
client.start();
...while program is running...
try (ClientSession session =
client.connect(...).verify(...timeout...).getSession()) {
try (ChannelShell shell = session.createShellChannel(...)) {
shell.setIn(...);
shell.setOut(...);
shell.setErr(...);
// spawn the threads that will read/write STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR
try {
shell.open().verify(...timeout...);
// This is the part that many miss and so channel.close() is called because
try-with-resource block exits
shell.waitFor(EnumSet.of(ClientChannelEvent.CLOSED), 0L /* forever */);
} finally {
....kill the spawned threads...
}
}
}
... on exit...
client.stop();
