Ssh Run a Remote Command

Internal

• OpenSSH Client Operations

Overview

The simplest way to run a command remotely over ssh is to specify the command at the end of the ssh command line. If the command to be executed remotely contains spaces, the whole remote command must be enclosed in double quotes, as following:

ssh some-user@example-host "ls -l"

Important: to avoid local shell substitution inside the remote command, escape special shell characters such as $ or *:

ssh some-user@example-host "\$(hostname)"

will return the remote hostname.

Environment

Executing a command remotely with ssh implies sourcing of .bashrc, but not of .bash_profile. If configuration from .bash_profile is needed, it has to be sourced explicitly:

ssh ". .bash_profile; ..."

Multiple Remote Commands in the Same SSH Invocation

ssh some-user@example-host "ls ~; echo 'blah'; ls /tmp"

Important: If storing the ssh command in a local variable and executing the local variable, the double quotes around the multiple commands are not necessary. This works:

ssh_command="ssh some-user@example-host ls ~; echo 'blah'; ls /tmp"
${ssh_command}

Multiple Commands with sudo Over ssh

TODO https://home.feodorov.com:9443/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Sudo#section-Sudo-MultipleCommandsWithSudoOverSsh