How can I use Perl's Net::SFTP::Foreign on Windows?

Question

I installed Net::SFTP::Foreign in my perl 5.8.8 and I'm trying to log in to a Secure FTP server using the below code:

use Net::SFTP::Foreign;
my $host = $tt->get_ftp_server_address();
my $sftp = Net::SFTP::Foreign->new("$host",
                                     {user=>$tt->get_location_user_name(),
                                     password=>$tt->get_location_user_password(),
                                     port=>'22'});

The line where I try to call Net::SFTP::Foreign->new fails without throwing any error on me.

Answer 1

I think the constructor is expecting a hashtable and not a reference to a hash. Try removing the braces in your call:

my $sftp = Net::SFTP::Foreign->new("$host",
                                     user=>$tt->get_location_user_name(),
                                     password=>$tt->get_location_user_password(),
                                     port=>'22');

Answer 2

I'm reacting on your comment "Do I need to install anything else on a Windows machine for this lib to work properly?" here.

The readme states you need to have an external SSH2 client reachable from your PATH. Could that be the problem? The module is known to work on windows.

Answer 3

You can also set the 'debug' to 1 in the %args to the constructor

From the Net::SFTP::Foreign doc:

debug => 1 if set to a true value, debugging messages will be printed out. The default is false.

Edit: Try $Net::SFTP::Foreign::debug = 1;

From the source of the 1.56_04 version:

we make $Net::SFTP::Foreign::Helpers::debug an alias for $Net::SFTP::Foreign::debug so that the user can set it without knowing anything about the Helpers package!

our $debug;

Answer 4

Password authentication is not supported on Windows unless you use Cygwin Perl. You will have to install Expect also.

Development versions (currently, 1.56_08) can be used with Net::SSH2, so you get a rich SFTP client and password authentication.

Net::SFTP::Foreign can also work with plink (a utility that comes with Putty), that combination supports password authentication under Windows but it is not completely secure.

Answer 5

In addition to the possibility of turning on debugging, note that the documentation clearly states:

An explicit check for errors should be included always after the constructor call:

my $sftp = Net::SFTP::Foreign->new(...);
$sftp->error and die "SSH connection failed: " . $sftp->error;

So, printing out that error message would be the first step in diagnosing issues.