Multiple commands on remote machine using shell script

Question

I have a Java program Desktop/testfolder/xyz.jar on a remote machine. It has a configuration file on the same folder. When I SSH into the machine, I do:

"ssh user@remote java -cp Desktop/testfolder/xyz.jar Main"

The problem here is the configuration file is not in the path, as we are in the home folder so my program cannot read the configuration.

I want to first go into that folder and then run the program from that folder. In a shell script if I did this

"ssh user@remote cd Desktop/testfolder"
"java -cp xyz.jar Main"

it executes the first statement and when the second statement is run it runs on my current machine not the remote machine.

Can we do only one command or there are any other solutions for this?

Possible duplicate of What is the cleanest way to ssh and run multiple commands in Bash? — jww
– jww, Commented Aug 23, 2019 at 20:42

Devin Burke · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-13 23:19:50Z

44

Try something like this:

ssh [email protected] "cd /home && ls -l"

edited Jan 13, 2012 at 23:19

Devin Burke

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answered Oct 16, 2010 at 18:20

Robin

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2 Comments

Lalith Over a year ago

Thanks both of your comments helped !

Robin Over a year ago

You're welcome! Trey's and my answer do the same thing provided the first part of the command "works" - the version with the && doesn't perform the second part of the command if the first part fails. For example, compare ssh [email protected] "cd /non-existant ; ls -l" to ssh [email protected] "cd /non-existant && ls -l". In the first case you still get some output from the ls -l command (even though the cd failed - probably the home dir of the you user) and in the latter case the ls -l command is skipped because the first operand returned false.

Trey Hunner · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-16 18:16:08Z

18

You could try separating the commands by a semicolon:

ssh user@remote "cd Desktop/testfolder ; java -cp xyz.jar Main"

answered Oct 16, 2010 at 18:16

Trey Hunner

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3 Comments

earthmeLon Over a year ago

It is important to note the difference between these two operators: && and ;. && Means that the second command will execute if, and only if the first command executes and returns with an exit status of zero (no errors) while ; allows the following command to execute regardless of it's exit status.

tripleee Over a year ago

It is also worth noting that a newline is permitted in the string where you have a semicolon. (Yes, regular strings can span multiple lines in sh and derivatives, without any additional syntax at all.)

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

...to be a little more explicit about the relevance of the prior comment here -- using ; instead of && means that the java interpreter can be invoked in the wrong directory if the cd fails, whereas ; will prevent that. Using && is thus more correct.

Dirk · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-11 14:21:18Z

6

If you want to split your commands over multiple lines for the sake of readability, you could also pass the list of commands to the bash command as follows:

ssh [email protected] bash -c "'
  cd Desktop/testfolder
  java -cp xyz.jar Main
'"

answered Oct 11, 2016 at 14:21

Dirk

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