Speed concerns

[Brett Thomas <brettpthomas@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry for the newbie question here -- I'm experimenting with libssh, and I
was surprised at how slow it is to run a remote command. I've tried testing
a quick prototype on a couple servers, and it has a ~1 second overhead to
just run an "ls" command.

More specifically: after I have opened a channel and issued a command
with ssh_channel_request_exec, the *first* call to ssh_channel_read takes ~1
second to return. Subsequent calls to ssh_channel_read - when the command
has a large output - are quick.

Is this a common problem - and are there any workarounds? I was going to
implement a remote file browser, but this is way too slow. I was expecting
subsequent commands to be ~instantaneous, like they are in an ssh
terminal. Is libssh necessarily slower than an ssh terminal, or am I doing
something wrong?

Thanks for your help,
Brett