Building network automation solutions

Recently, I've got a really interesting question: “If I start a telnet or SSH session from my Tcl shell with the exec command, I get the initial text, but then it all freezes. What's wrong?”

Let's start with the basic picture: When you open a telnet session to a router, the input and output is captured by the Exec process. When you open an outgoing telnet or SSH session to another router, the Exec process implements the telnet/ssh client functionality and switches the input/output data between the two TCP sessions:However, when you start the Tcl shell, the Exec CLI loses its control of the input/output streams, as they are taken over by Tclsh. The only means of communicating with the Exec CLI is through the typeahead and exec commands:So, if you start another Telnet session with the exec command, the Tclsh still controls the input/output of the user session and there is no way for the telnet client in the Exec CLI to communicate with the user.

This article is part of You've asked for it series.