Thanks for the suggestion. This module seems to have a lot of functionality, so I definitely thought the try worth the effort. I'm calling it differently now and get a different error:

Permission denied (publickey,password).
object created, back in main
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sub get_ftp_object{
use strict;
use Net::SFTP::Foreign;
use 5.01;
my $sub_hash = "my_sftp";
my $domain = $config{$sub_hash}->{'domain'};
my $username = $config{$sub_hash}->{'username'};
my $password = $config{$sub_hash}->{'password'};
my $port = 22;
#dial up the server

say "values are $domain $username $password";
my $sftp = Net::SFTP::Foreign->new( $domain, user => $username,
port => $port, password => $password)
  or die "Can't connect: $!\n";

  return $sftp;
}
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I seem to have gotten farther but don't understand why I didn't die here, as execution goes back to main. (?)

Net::SFTP::Foreign, by default, never dies when some error happens. Instead it keeps an internal error status that can be queried using the error method. For instance:

$s = Net::SFTP::Foreign->new(...);
if ($s->error) { die "Unable to connect to remote host: " . $s->error 
+}
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Alternatively, you can activate the autodie mode. It makes the object die, when some error happens:

$s = Net::SFTP::Foreign->new(..., autodie => 1);
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I have to say, I always have had good results with Net::SSH2, which contains an sftp client. See A little demo for Net::SSH2, which may be a little outdated, but it should show you basic usage.

zentara, the code in A little demo for Net::SSH2 is quite broken, it depends on dirty hacks on Net::SSH2 that were removed long ago (because they never really worked reliably). See Re^2: Problem in connecting to remote unix host via Net::SSH2 from windows machine for the details.

Also, it is not checking the remote host key. That spoils the security of the SSH protocol.

Ok, I've heard reports that people have had problems with it, but I didn't experience any. You asked for any ideas regarding sftp, so now you are wiser, maybe me too. :-)

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I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. ..... an animated JAPH

What is broken with Re^3: instantiating an SFTP object? It is taken right from the perldoc. If it works here, it's not broken. :-)

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I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. ..... an animated JAPH

Thanks for your response, zentara . After a third time with a failed login using different methods that seem to work for everyone else, I double-checked my password, which hadn't been updated in my little world of perl development. (sorry about that: I'd roll my eyes if my mom did that) That solves one problem, but as I read, I come closer to the opinion that the preferred method for login is to use RSA key-pairs. So while I want to get some minimal functionality for getting content to my site, I'd also like to update this capability to reflect the methods of grown-ups using encryption.

In order to install Net::SSH2 I had to run the following commands on a debian system:

sudo apt-get install libssh2-1-dev
sudo apt-get install zlib1g
sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev
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http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=569657 was very helpful. Unfortunately, http://cfm.gs.washington.edu/security/ssh/client-pkauth/ gets a 404 from my browser. I looked at https://www.debian.org/devel/passwordlessssh as a source for how I might go forward.

As I look at what's in front of me, I have a machine capable of both SSH1 and SSH2. My ISP makes no distinction. Do I want to use one or the other? Does SSH2 comprehend SSH1? If I write for SSH2, will I have a wider range of application or more likely burdened by a level of encryption that hardly need exist for my little html pages that have nothing to do with banking, or national security and the like?

Anyways, here's caller and sub on the what works now.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use 5.010;
use lib "template_stuff";
use File::Basename; 
use Net::SSH2;
use File::Spec;
use Term::ReadKey;

my $rftp = get_ftp_object();
say "object created, back in main";
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sub get_ftp_object{
use strict;
use Net::SSH2;
use 5.01;
my $sub_hash = "my_sftp";
my $domain = $config{$sub_hash}->{'domain'};
my $username = $config{$sub_hash}->{'username'};
my $password = $config{$sub_hash}->{'password'};
say "values are $domain $username $password";

#dial up the server
my $ssh2 = Net::SSH2->new();
$ssh2->connect($domain) or die "Unable to connect Host $@ \n";
say "connect worked";
#this works for passwords 
$ssh2->auth_password($username,$password) or die "Unable to login $@ \
+n";
return $ssh2;
}
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Hi, if you read the demo a little more closely, you would see the section:

# works when run from z's homedir because you need
# permission to read the keys
$ssh2->auth_publickey('z',
                 '/home/z/.ssh/id_dsa.pub',
         '/home/z/.ssh/id_dsa',
          $pass );
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Try reading the latest docs for Net::SSH2. maybe that syntax has changed a bit. $pass is the password for your ssh key, not the login account

P.S. use ssh2, ssh1 is very outdated

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I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. ..... an animated JAPH

Hi, here is a Net::SSH2 sftp script that works. I just verified it. This shows how to do a login with rsa keys, the password has been changed of course. Works on latest Slackware linux, which is pretty standard generic linux.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Net::SSH2 qw(LIBSSH2_CHANNEL_EXTENDED_DATA_MERGE
                        LIBSSH2_CHANNEL_FLUSH_ALL
                        LIBSSH2_HOSTKEY_POLICY_ASK);

my $pass = 'rumpelstiltskin';
my $ssh2 = Net::SSH2->new( debug => 1 ); 
$ssh2->trace(-1);
$ssh2->timeout(5000);

$ssh2->connect('my.net') or $ssh2->die_with_error;

$ssh2->auth_publickey('me',
                 '/home/me/.ssh/id_rsa.pub',
                   '/home/me/.ssh/id_rsa',
                $pass );


 my $sftp = $ssh2->sftp();
 my $fh = $sftp->open('/etc/passwd') or $sftp->die_with_error;
 print $_ while <$fh>;


return 0;

__END__
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I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. ..... an animated JAPH