use Net::SSH2;
use warnings;
use strict;

my $buflen = 10000;
my $buf1 = '0' x $buflen;

my $ssh2 = Net::SSH2->new();

$ssh2->connect('xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx') or die;

$ssh2->auth_password('xxx','xxxxxxx') or die "Unable to login $! \n";

my $chan = $ssh2->channel();

$chan->blocking(0);

$chan->shell();

for(1 .. 2) {

 if($_ == 1) {$chan->write("echo \$PATH\n")}
 else {$chan->write("echo \$HOME\n")}
 select(undef,undef,undef,0.25);

 $chan->read($buf1, $buflen);
 print "BUF1: ", $buf1, "\n";
}

$chan->close;

##</code><code>##

BUF1: /usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/home/rob/bin

BUF1: /home/rob

##</code><code>##

BUF1:

BUF1: /home/rob

##</code><code>##

for($i = 0, $i < 2, $i++) {

 if($_ == 1) {$chan->write("echo \$PATH\n")}
 else {$chan->write("echo \$HOME\n")}
 select(undef,undef,undef,0.25);

 $chan->read($buf1, $buflen);
 if($buf1) {print "BUF1: ", $buf1, "\n"}
 else {
   print "Empty buffer ... trying again\n";
   --$i;
 }  
}

##</code><code>##

Empty buffer ... trying again
BUF1: /usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/home/rob/bin

BUF1: /home/rob