CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonctelnet
MAC
MAC

Reputation: 521

Writing a telnet client

HI,

I have a device that exposes a telnet interface which you can log into using a username and password and then manipulate the working of the device.

I have to write a C program that hides the telnet aspect from the client and instead provides an interface for the user to control the device.

What would be a good way to proceed. I tried writing a simple socket program but it stops at the login prompt. My guess is that i am not following the TCP protocol.

Has anyone attempted this, is there an opensource library out there to do this?

Thanks

Addition: Eventually i wish to expose it through a web api/webservice. The platform is linux.

Upvotes: 9

Views: 19583

Answers (9)

bbaassssiiee
bbaassssiiee

Reputation: 6782

See options in your telnet client: on an arbitrary listening socket and hit escape] to enter the client.

telnet> help
telnet> set ?

Upvotes: 0

systempuntoout
systempuntoout

Reputation: 74094

Download Putty source code. Examine TELNET.C, the Telnet backend for Putty.

Upvotes: 2

sivabudh
sivabudh

Reputation: 32635

Check out the source code here. It has helped me out a lot in understanding Telnet protocol.

Upvotes: 0

nategoose
nategoose

Reputation: 12382

While telnet is almost just a socket tied to a terminal it's not quite. I believe that there can be some control characters that get passed shortly after the connection is made. If your device is sending some unexpected control data then it may be confusing your program. If you haven't already, go download wireshark (or tshark or tcpdump) and monitor your connection. Wireshark (formerly ethereal) is cross platform and pretty easy to use for simple stuff. Filter with tcp.port == 23

Upvotes: 3

Tiberiu Ana
Tiberiu Ana

Reputation: 3663

Unless the application is trivial, a better starting point would be to figure out how you're going to create the GUI. This is a bigger question and will have more impact on your project than how exactly you telnet into the device. You mention C at first, but then start talking about Python, which makes me believe you are relatively flexible in the matter.

Once you are set on a language/platform, then look for a telnet library -- you should find something reasonable already implemented.

Upvotes: 1

Frank
Frank

Reputation: 2413

I really find Beej's Guide to Network Programming a good introduction to network programming in C.

Upvotes: 2

compie
compie

Reputation: 10536

If Python is an option you could use telnetlib.

Code example:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import getpass
import sys
import telnetlib

HOST = "localhost"
user = raw_input("Enter your remote account: ")
password = getpass.getpass()

tn = telnetlib.Telnet(HOST)

tn.read_until("login: ")
tn.write(user + "\n")
if password:
    tn.read_until("Password: ")
    tn.write(password + "\n")

tn.write("ls\n")
tn.write("exit\n")

print tn.read_all()

Upvotes: 10

Jeremy Friesner
Jeremy Friesner

Reputation: 73081

telnet's protocol is pretty straightforward... you just create a TCP connection, and send and receive ASCII data. That's pretty much it.

So all you really need to do is create a program that connects via TCP, then reads characters from the TCP socket and parses it to update the GUI, and/or writes characters to the socket in response to the user manipulating controls in the GUI.

How you would implement that depends a lot on what software you are using to construct your interface. On the TCP side, a simple event loop around select() would be sufficient.

Upvotes: 4

Nate
Nate

Reputation: 30636

This might be useful reading for you.

Upvotes: 2

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