--- /dev/null
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+##############################################################################
+#Copyright (c) 2017 Orange, Inc. and others. All rights reserved.
+#
+# This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
+# terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution,
+# and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
+##############################################################################
+#
+# debian dependecies: apt-get install libnet-openssh-perl libio-pty-perl
+#
+
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+#use diagnostics; #uncomment this line for more details when encountering warnings
+use Net::OpenSSH;
+use FileHandle;
+use Getopt::Long qw(:config no_ignore_case bundling);
+
+my ($host, $help, $usage, $capabilities, $login, $password, $kidpid, $hello_message);
+
+
+GetOptions (
+ "h|help" =>\$help,
+ "C|capabilities=s"=>\$capabilities
+);
+$usage = "
+USAGE: netconf_terminal.pl [-h|--help] [-C|--capabilities <custom_hello_file.xml>] <[login[:password]@]host[:port]> [login] [password]
+
+Simple netconf terminal client that can be used as an alternative to 'openssh [-p port] <[login@]host> -s netconf'.
+The main difference is the built-in handshake phase with hello capabilties that can be loaded from an external file.
+This is particularly useful to avoid timeouts.
+
+OPTIONS :
+
+ -C or --capabilities use the given file to advertise a hello message with customized capabilities
+ -h or --help print this help
+
+";
+
+if ($help) {
+ print $usage;
+ exit(0);
+}
+
+unless (@ARGV >= 1) {
+ print $usage;
+ exit(0);
+}
+
+($host, $login, $password) = @ARGV;
+
+#netconf default port is no 22 but 830
+if ($host !~ /:[0-9]+$/) {
+ $host.=':830';
+}
+
+my $connection_string=$host;
+if ($password) {
+ $connection_string=$login.":".$password."@".$connection_string;
+} elsif ($login) {
+ $connection_string=$login."@".$connection_string;
+}
+
+#retrieving hello custom file if any
+if (defined ($capabilities)) {
+ open(CAPABILITIES,'<',$capabilities) or die ("can not open $capabilities") ;
+ while (<CAPABILITIES>) {
+ $hello_message .= $_;
+ }
+ chop $hello_message; # removing EOF
+ $hello_message.="\n]]>]]>\n";
+ close(CAPABILITIES);
+}
+#otherwise using a basic hello message
+#EXI extension is not advertised by default since difficult to handle manually
+else{
+ $hello_message='<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+<hello xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
+<capabilities>
+<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-netconf-monitoring?module=ietf-netconf-monitoring&revision=2010-10-04</capability>
+<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-netconf-notifications?module=ietf-netconf-notifications&revision=2012-02-06</capability>
+<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0?module=ietf-netconf&revision=2011-06-01</capability>
+<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-yang-types?module=ietf-yang-types&revision=2013-07-15</capability>
+<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:candidate:1.0</capability>
+<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:notification:1.0?module=notifications&revision=2008-07-14</capability>
+<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-netconf-monitoring-extension?module=ietf-netconf-monitoring-extension&revision=2013-12-10</capability>
+<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:base:1.0</capability>
+<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:iana-afn-safi?module=iana-afn-safi&revision=2013-07-04</capability>
+<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-inet-types?module=ietf-inet-types&revision=2013-07-15</capability>
+</capabilities>
+</hello>';
+ $hello_message.="\n]]>]]>\n";
+}
+
+
+print STDERR "connecting to ".$connection_string."\n";
+
+my $ssh_handle= Net::OpenSSH->new($connection_string,
+ master_opts => [-o => 'StrictHostKeyChecking=no'],
+ timeout => 500, kill_ssh_on_timeout => 500);
+
+#netconf requires a specific socket
+my ($ssh_subsocket, $pid) = $ssh_handle->open2socket({ssh_opts => '-s'}, 'netconf');
+die "can't establish connection: exiting\n" unless defined($ssh_subsocket);
+
+print STDERR "[Connected]\n";
+
+# split the program into two processes, identical twins
+die "can't fork: $!" unless defined($kidpid = fork());
+
+
+# the if{} block runs only in the parent process (terminal output)
+if (!$kidpid) {
+
+ $|=1;
+
+ # copy the socket to standard output
+ my $buf;
+ my $nread;
+ #while (<$ssh_subsocket>) {
+ #buffer seems not totally flushed when using the syntax above (nor when using autoflush)
+ while ($nread = sysread($ssh_subsocket,$buf,150)) {
+ print $buf;
+ $ssh_subsocket->flush();
+ };
+
+ print;
+ kill("TERM", $kidpid); # send SIGTERM to child
+}
+# the else{} block runs only in the child process (terminal input)
+else {
+
+ $ssh_subsocket->autoflush(1);
+ sleep 1; # wait needed for ensuring STDOUT buffer is not melt
+
+ if (defined ($hello_message)) {
+ print $ssh_subsocket $hello_message;
+ sleep 1;
+ }
+
+ while (defined (my $line = <STDIN>)) {
+ print $ssh_subsocket $line;
+ }
+
+}
+
+sleep 2;
+kill("TERM", $kidpid); # send SIGTERM to child
+exit;