It would be neat to be able to read a remote file to a variable.

Here's my hacky implementation:

from pssh.ssh2_client import SSHClient
from pssh.native._ssh2 import wait_select
from pssh.constants import DEFAULT_RETRIES, RETRY_DELAY
from ssh2.error_codes import LIBSSH2_ERROR_EAGAIN
from ssh2.sftp import LIBSSH2_FXF_READ, LIBSSH2_SFTP_S_IRUSR

class MySSH2Client(SSHClient):
  def __init__(self, host,
               user=None,
               password=None,
               port=None,
               pkey=None,
               num_retries=DEFAULT_RETRIES,
               retry_delay=RETRY_DELAY,
               allow_agent=True,
               timeout=None):
    SSHClient.__init__(self, host, user, password, port, pkey, num_retries, retry_delay, allow_agent, timeout)

  def read(self, remote_file, sftp=None):
    sftp = self._make_sftp() if sftp is None else sftp
    text = ""
    with self._sftp_openfh(
                sftp.open, remote_file,
                LIBSSH2_FXF_READ, LIBSSH2_SFTP_S_IRUSR) as remote_fh:
      for size, data in remote_fh:
        if size == LIBSSH2_ERROR_EAGAIN:
          wait_select(self.session)
          continue
        text += data
      return text

Best Wishes,

Clay