One advantage to using Net::SSH::Perl over wrapper-style implementations of ssh clients is that it saves on process overhead: you no longer need to fork and execute a separate process in order to connect to an sshd. Depending on the amount of time and memory needed to fork a process, this win can be quite substantial; particularly if you're running in a persistent Perl environment (mod_perl, for example), where forking a new process is a drain on process and memory resources.
It also simplifies the process of using password-based authentications; when writing a wrapper around ssh you probably need to use Expect to control the ssh client and give it your password. Net::SSH::Perl has built-in support for the authentication protocols, so there's no longer any hassle of communicating with any external processes.
The packages Patrick found are alternatives (and IMO less usable alternatives) to Net::SSH::Perl
To quote from search. cpan.org/ ~turnstep/ Net-SSH- Perl-1. 34/lib/ Net/SSH/ Perl.pm
http://
One advantage to using Net::SSH::Perl over wrapper-style implementations of ssh clients is that it saves on process overhead: you no longer need to fork and execute a separate process in order to connect to an sshd. Depending on the amount of time and memory needed to fork a process, this win can be quite substantial; particularly if you're running in a persistent Perl environment (mod_perl, for example), where forking a new process is a drain on process and memory resources.
It also simplifies the process of using password-based authentications; when writing a wrapper around ssh you probably need to use Expect to control the ssh client and give it your password. Net::SSH::Perl has built-in support for the authentication protocols, so there's no longer any hassle of communicating with any external processes.