SSH to Server, Execute Command, and Maintain Connection

Question

I want to write a script that opens a terminal with different tabs, logon to a server using ssh in each tab and execute a command in each tab. For example: htop.

The below script opens a terminal with 4 tabs all logged in on the server. But if I try to add the htop command in the cmd= line it does not work anymore...

#bin/bash

tab="--tab"
cmd="bash -c 'ssh user@host';bash"
foo=""

for i in 1 2 3 4; do
      foo+=($tab -e "$cmd")         
done

gnome-terminal "${foo[@]}"

exit 0

I have tried this...

cmd="bash -c 'ssh user@host htop';bash"

...because the ssh --help says that the syntax for ssh is:

usage: ssh [user@]hostname [command]

Solution

In its simplest form:

ssh -t user@host "command; bash"

-t is the critical part here. It forces the host to allocate a virtual terminal to the process, which allows it to stay open.

If you just want to run htop on a load of servers, you can omit the bash at the end but that does mean if you quit htop, you'll drop back to a local terminal.

Comments

[Red]

I tried cmd="bash -c 'ssh -t user@host htop';bash". It works but if I quit htop I drop back to local terminal and I don't want this happens

[Oli]

@Red Check your quotes - they're all over the place - you need to group htop and bash together so they're both run on the remote server. bash -c 'ssh -t user@host "htop;bash"' would be better but I don't see why you're trying to fry this thing in a bash wrapper in the first place. It isn't required - you're only running one command locally.

[Red]

Thank you, now it works with cmd="ssh -t user@host htop;bash"

[mc0e]

A good answer, but there must be something better to use than bash in order not to terminate.

[Oli]

@mc0e Depends what you want to do. This question is more about getting a useful shell after running your command. If you just want to pause, you could substitute bash for read.