$chan->blocking(0);

As regards your 2nd script, to get it working with the 'date' command on Win32 (connecting to a local linux host), I had to specify $chan->blocking(1);

I didn't get it to work with the 'wc' command (and didn't have time to persevere). However, PeterPeiGuo's script worked fine for that command.

I was a little surprised that I was able to get anywhere with either of these scripts, as last time I tried using the while (<$chan>){...} approach on Win32 I couldn't get it to work at all. Maybe it's something that has been fixed in recent versions of Net::SSH2 - I'll have to sit down and try to make sense of all of this when I get a chance.

Cheers,
Rob