Cannot create a file remotely via SSH using cat and <<EOF

Question

I am trying to create a file remotely via ssh with the command as follows:

ssh $REMOTE_USER@$REMOTE_HOST "
    cat > hooks/post-receive <<EOF
    #!/bin/bash
    git checkout -f
    EOF
    chmod +x hooks/post-receive
"

After it is successfully executed when I check the file with cat repo.git/hooks/post-receive on remote server I see the following result:

#!/bin/bash
git checkout -f
EOF
chmod +x hooks/post-receive

I expect EOF and chmod +x hooks/post-receive not to be present in post-receive file. What can be done to solve this.

Possible duplicate of How does "cat << EOF" work in bash?

David C. Rankin
– David C. Rankin

2018-12-25 08:27:20 +00:00
Commented Dec 25, 2018 at 8:27 — David C. Rankin
– David C. Rankin, Commented Dec 25, 2018 at 8:27

oguz ismail · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-25 09:19:50Z

1

From man bash:

Here Documents

This type of redirection instructs the shell to read input from the current source until a line containing only delimiter (with no trailing blanks) is seen.

...

If the redirection operator is <<-, then all leading tab characters are stripped from input lines and the line containing delimiter. This allows here-documents within shell scripts to be indented in a natural fashion.

So, you need to remove trailing spaces from your here document or substitute them with tabs.

ssh $REMOTE_USER@$REMOTE_HOST "
cat > hooks/post-receive <<EOF
#!/bin/bash
git checkout -f
EOF
chmod +x hooks/post-receive"

# or,

ssh $REMOTE_USER@$REMOTE_HOST "
cat > hooks/post-receive <<-EOF
    #!/bin/bash
    git checkout -f
    EOF
    chmod +x hooks/post-receive"

edited Dec 25, 2018 at 9:19

answered Dec 25, 2018 at 8:19

oguz ismail

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4 Comments

David C. Rankin Over a year ago

or use <<- and then everything must be indented with a tab and the tab will be ignored in the output.

wrufesh Over a year ago

Concerning <<- please note that only leading tab characters are stripped -- not soft tab characters.

oguz ismail Over a year ago

@DavidC.Rankin thanks, edited to add info about <<-.

David C. Rankin Over a year ago

Good deal, that rounds out the completeness of the answer.

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