Loop outputting blank variables - SSH Bash

Question

I am writing a script to help me sync files between my home pc and my server. One of the problems ive run into is that, when I run the for loop, it outputs blank lines.

Everything else seems to be fine, echo $REMOTE lists all files and their full paths as expected. I have tried unquoting, quoting, Changing EOF from "EOF" to EOF etc, but so far nothing has worked.

Here is the script below:

function uploadDownload()
{
    if [ "$1" == "d" ]; then
        ssh -i ~/Dropbox/Business/aws/first.pem [email protected] << EOF
        echo $REMOTE

        for file in $REMOTE; do
            echo $file
        done
EOF
        #scp -r -i ~/Dropbox/Business/aws/first.pem [email protected]:$REMOTE $LOCAL
    elif [ "$1" == "u" ]; then
        scp -r -i ~/Dropbox/Business/aws/first.pem $LOCAL [email protected]:$REMOTE
    fi
}


if [ "$2" == "m" ]; then

    if [ -z "$3" ]; then
        echo "Please enter the local location of the files and provide an absolute path..."
        read LOCAL
        echo "Please enter the remote location of the files..."
        read REMOTE
        uploadDownload
    else
        LOCAL=$2
        if [ -z "$4" ]; then
            REMOTE=$3
        else
            REMOTE='[email protected]:~/test/'
        fi  
        uploadDownload
    fi
else
    LOCAL='/home/will/Dropbox/Business/aws/files/binaryhustle/'
    REMOTE='/home/ubuntu/dev/binaryhustle/*'
    uploadDownload $1
fi

EDIT: based on advice I have edited the uploadDownload function. I should also note than I tested echo "$REMOTE"; outside of the loop and it returns nothing (unlike without quotes, where it returns something).

function uploadDownload()
    {
        if [ "$1" == "d" ]; then
            ssh -i ~/Dropbox/Business/aws/first.pem [email protected] << EOF
    for file in "/home/ubuntu/dev/binaryhustle"; do
    echo $file
    done
    EOF
            #scp -r -i ~/Dropbox/Business/aws/first.pem [email protected]:$REMOTE $LOCAL
        elif [ "$1" == "u" ]; then
            scp -r -i ~/Dropbox/Business/aws/first.pem $LOCAL [email protected]:$REMOTE
        fi
    }

konsolebox · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-07 10:00:31Z

2

Try to quote your variable $file as it is expanded before being sent to the remote server:

            echo $file

To

            echo \$file

Or better yet

            echo \"\$file\"

edited Sep 7, 2013 at 10:00

answered Sep 7, 2013 at 9:38

konsolebox

76.3k13 gold badges110 silver badges114 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

sshilovsky · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-07 10:12:26Z

1

You may want to take a look at unison. Its powerful file syncing tool able to work over ssh. It doesn't do any content diff though.

answered Sep 7, 2013 at 10:12

sshilovsky

1,0082 gold badges10 silver badges22 bronze badges

1 Comment

Melbourne2991 Over a year ago

Thanks I actually ended up using rsync. I will post the final code for others.

Melbourne2991 · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-07 11:12:35Z

0

Credit to @konsolebox for getting me half way there, I got it working by adding the slash to file, however this did not work with << EOF , only <

function uploadDownload()
{
    if [ "$1" == "d" ]; then
            ssh -i ~/Dropbox/Business/aws/first.pem [email protected] <<EOF
for file in "$REMOTE"; do
echo \$file
done
EOF
            #scp -r -i ~/Dropbox/Business/aws/first.pem [email protected]:$REMOTE $LOCAL
        elif [ "$1" == "u" ]; then
            scp -r -i ~/Dropbox/Business/aws/first.pem $LOCAL [email protected]:$REMOTE
        fi
    }

edited Sep 7, 2013 at 11:12

answered Sep 7, 2013 at 10:02

Melbourne2991

11.8k12 gold badges49 silver badges83 bronze badges

3 Comments

konsolebox Over a year ago

Did you try not to indent your delimiter EOF?. Also since you quoted $REMOTE this time ("$REMOTE"), it would just expand to one word. I may have suggested quoting your variables before but not for one you really intend to be processed with word splitting. (Edit: Arrays won't be applicable to that. One added note deleted.)

konsolebox Over a year ago

And please tell us why it still doesn't work, and what mod actually worked. I read it as you used <EOF instead?

Melbourne2991 Over a year ago

Yes the delimiter is not indented, removing the space between << and EOF is what fixed it (in addition to adding the slash) <<EOF instead of << EOF.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Loop outputting blank variables - SSH Bash

3 Answers 3

Comments

1 Comment

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

Comments

1 Comment

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related