How I can list files from REMOTE HOST directory using Python?

Question

I need get the list of files from a remote host directory, running the code in my local machine.

Is something like os.listdir() at remote host machine, NOT is os.lisdir() in the local machine that runs the python code.

In bash this command works ssh user@host "find /remote/path/ -name "pattern*" -mmin -15" > /local/path/last_files.txt

Solution

Your best option for running commands on a remote machine is via ssh with paramiko.

A couple of examples of how to use the library and issue a command to the remote system:

import base64
import paramiko

# Let's assign an RSA SSH key to the 'key' variable
key = paramiko.RSAKey(data=base64.b64decode(b'AAA...'))

# And create a client instance.
client = paramiko.SSHClient()

# Create an object to store our key  
host_keys = client.get_host_keys()
# Add our key to 'host_keys'
host_keys.add('ssh.example.com', 'ssh-rsa', key)

# Connect to our client; you will need 
# to know/use for the remote account:
#
#   IP/Hostname of target
#   A username 
#   A password
client.connect('IP_HOSTNAME', username='THE_USER', password='THE_PASSWORD')

# Assign our input, output and error variables to
# to a command we will be issuing to the remote 
# system 
stdin, stdout, stderr = client.exec_command(
    'find /path/data/ -name "pattern*" -mmin -15'
)

# We iterate over stdout
for line in stdout:
    print('... ' + line.strip('\n'))

# And finally we close the connection to our client
client.close()

As pointed out by the OP, if we already have a known hosts file locally we can do things slightly different:

import base64
import paramiko

# And create a client instance.
client = paramiko.SSHClient()

# Create a 'host_keys' object and load
# our local known hosts  
host_keys = client.load_system_host_keys()

# Connect to our client; you will need 
# to know/use for the remote account:
#
#   IP/Hostname of target
#   A username 
#   A password
client.connect('IP_HOSTNAME', username='THE_USER', password='THE_PASSWORD')

# Assign our input, output and error variables to
# to a command we will be issuing to the remote 
# system 
stdin, stdout, stderr = client.exec_command(
    'find /path/data/ -name "pattern*" -mmin -15'
)

# We iterate over stdout
for line in stdout:
    print('... ' + line.strip('\n'))

# And finally we close the connection to our client
client.close()