Shell sessions

• US 7,933,964 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Issued: 04/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: McCollum, Raymond W., Reistad, Brian, Nosov, Alexander, Helander, Johannes
• Primary Examiner(s): SHIN, KYUNG H
• Application Number:
  US11/469,411
• Publication Number:
  US 20070192502A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,699 Days
• Field of Search: 709/205, 709/206, 709/207, 709/223, 709/237, 726/5
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45512 Command shells

Abstract

Embodiments described herein are based on the principle that shells execute commands as units of characters sent within a message. Accordingly, embodiments herein provide for establishing a remote processing session for commands by using a binding mechanism that binds a series of commands to a remote shell using a message rather than a binary stream of data. More specifically, embodiments herein provided for a mechanism of encapsulating both a command and a binding mechanism (e.g., a shell identifier and/or shell token) into a single message. Accordingly, the binding mechanism can be used throughout the lifetime of the session and allows for modeling the shell processor session (its lifetime) as a series of commands, rather than as a series of characters. In addition, note that because the binding mechanism for the shell sessions is sent within messages, the problems associated with binary or character-by-character establishment of current shell sessions are overcome.

Claims

1. At a remote device in a network computing environment, a method of establishing a command-line shell processing session by providing a binding mechanism within a message rather than a binary stream of data in order to bind a shell to a series of commands, the method comprising:

receiving a request message to open a shell at a remote command-line shell processor;

opening the shell;

in acknowledgement of the shell being opened, sending from the remote command-line shell processor an open shell response message providing a binding mechanism for use in transferring commands to the shell for execution; and

receiving an execution request message to execute a command, wherein the execution request message includes the command as a unit and the binding mechanism,

wherein each of the request message and the binding mechanism are represented by uniform resource identifiers,

the execution request message being capable of including multiple commands, wherein a data exchange between a client and the remote command-line shell processor comprises one or more streams of data of dedicated input and output messages segregated from one or more of the multiple commands, wherein the dedicated input messages are received by the remote command-line shell processor, and the dedicated output messages are sent by the remote command-line shell processor as a result of execution of one or more commands at the remote command-line shell processor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the binding mechanism is a shell identifier, shell token, or both.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to the received execution request message the method further comprises:

sending a response message that includes a command identifier for use in identifying input, output, or other signal messages related to the execution of the command.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the response message includes a status report of the execution of the command.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the command requires input for execution at the command-line shell processor, wherein the input is received as one or more streams of data separate from the execution message, and wherein the input includes both the binding mechanism and a command identifier.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the execution of the command produces an output, and wherein the output is sent to a client as one or more streams of data that include both the binding mechanism and a command identifier.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more asynchronous signal messages that include both the binding mechanism and a command identifier for changing the shell operation flow such that the execution of the command is terminated, paused, resumed, exited, or delayed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the command requires an input stream and the execution of the command produces an output stream, and wherein a rate of flow for the input stream is dynamically adjusted relative to a rate of flow for the output stream.

9. At a client device in a network computing environment, a method of establishing a remote processing session for commands by using a binding mechanism that binds a series of commands to a remote shell using a message rather than a binary stream of data, the method comprising:

sending a request message to open a shell at a remote command-line shell processor;

in acknowledgement of the shell being opened, receiving from the remote command-line shell processor an open shell response message including a binding mechanism for use in transferring commands to the shell for execution;

sending an execution request message to execute a command, wherein the execution request message includes the command as a unit and the binding mechanism,

wherein each of the request message and the binding mechanism are represented by uniform resource identifiers,

the execution request message being capable of including multiple commands, wherein a data exchange between the client device and the remote command-line shell processor comprises one or more streams of data of dedicated input and output messages segregated from one or more of the multiple commands, wherein the dedicated input messages are sent by the client device, and the dedicated output messages are received by the client device as a result of execution of one or more commands at the remote command-line shell processor.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the binding mechanism is a shell identifier, shell token, or both.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein in response to the sent execution request message the method further comprises:

receiving a response message that includes a command identifier for use in identifying input, output, or other signal messages related to the execution of the command.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the response message includes a status report of the execution of the command.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the command requires input for execution at the shell, wherein the input is sent as one or more streams of data separate from the execution message, and wherein the input includes both the binding mechanism and a command identifier.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the execution of the command produces an output, and wherein the output is received at a client as one or more streams of data that include both the binding mechanism and a command identifier.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

sending one or more asynchronous signal messages that include both the binding mechanism and a command identifier for changing the shell operation flow such that the execution of the command is terminated, paused, resumed, exited, or delayed.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the command requires an input stream and the execution of the command produces an output stream, and wherein a rate of flow for the input stream is dynamically adjusted relative to a rate of flow for the output stream.

17. At a remote device in a network computing environment, a computer program product for implementing a method of establishing a command-line shell processing session by providing a binding mechanism within a message rather than a binary stream of data in order to bind a shell to a series of commands, the computer program product comprising one or more computer readable storage media having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, can cause the remote device to perform the following:

receive a request message to open a shell at a remote command-line shell processor;

open the shell;

in acknowledgement of the shell being opened, send from the remote command-line shell processor an open shell response message that provides a binding mechanism for use in transferring commands to the shell for execution; and

receive an execution request message to execute a command, wherein the execution request message includes the command as a unit and the binding mechanism,

wherein each of the request message and the binding mechanism are represented by uniform resource identifiers,

the execution request message being capable of including multiple commands, wherein a data exchange between a client and the remote command-line shell processor comprises one or more streams of data of dedicated input and output messages segregated from one or more of the multiple commands, wherein the dedicated input messages are received by the remote command-line shell processor, and the dedicated output messages are sent by the remote command-line shell processor as a result of execution of one or more commands at the remote command-line shell processor.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the binding mechanism is a shell identifier, shell token, or both.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein in response to the received execution request message the computer program product further comprising executable instructions that cause the command-line processor to perform the following:

send a response message that includes a command identifier for use in identifying input, output, or other signal messages related to the execution of the command.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the command requires input for execution at the command-line shell processor, wherein the input is received as one or more streams of data separate from the execution message, and wherein the input includes both the binding mechanism and a command identifiers.