CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashhttp-redirectsshstdoutstderr
natharra
natharra

Reputation: 15

When redirecting in bash to stdout or stderr, I actually get redirected to a file

I'm saving the output of one command executed on a remote via ssh, but I also execute some echos. In order to see the messages on the screen and not save them to the variable I want to redirect them. I have tried >&1 and >&2 but in each case a file is created with the name either "1" or "2" Is this an issue of expanding quotes or escaping characters?

OUTPUT=$(sshpass -p password ssh user@ip 'echo "Message1" >&2 ;
                                          su -lc "./rootscript.sh" >&2; 
                                          echo "$?" ')
echo "su output is: $OUTPUT"

Output:

Nothing on screen, a file named "2" with the text "Password" inside (assuming Message 1 was overwritten) The program still waits for a password, even without a prompt, so when I enter it the output is good:

su output is: 0

How can I get my messages to show on screen?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2220

Answers (1)

that other guy
that other guy

Reputation: 123410

@JonathanLeffler caught the problem right away -- you're not using bash, but tcsh.

tcsh has its own syntax incompatible with bash.

It doesn't matter though: since ssh and sshpass return the remote command's exit code, this is how you should be doing it:

if sshpass -p password ssh user@ip 'echo "Message1"; su -lc "./rootscript.sh"'
then
  echo "The command succeeded (exit code $?)"
else
  echo "The command failed (exit code $?)"
fi

If you really wanted to run something in bash on the remote shell, you could do use Charles Duffy's code with a minor change:

                                      #    v-- shell specified here
output=$(sshpass -p password ssh user@ip bash << 'EOF'
   echo "Message1" >&2
   su -lc "./rootscript.sh" >&2 
   echo "$?"
EOF
)

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions