I want to run a few shell commands every time I SSH to a server via PuTTY. I'm connecting to a production web server managed by someone else, and I don't want to store my own scripts there.
I see the option Connection > SSH > Remote Command, but if I put my initialization commands there, after starting the session, it closes immediately after the commands execute. How can I run the Remote Command, and then keep the session open so I can continue using it?
The SSH session closes (and PuTTY with it) as soon as the command finishes. By default the "command" is a shell. As you have overridden this default "command" and yet you want to run the shell nevertheless, you have to explicitly execute the shell yourself:
my-command ; /bin/bash
See also Executing a specific command on the server.
One option to go is set up your putty remote command like this:
ls > dir.ls & /bin/bash
In this example command you want to run is "ls > dir.ls" what creates file dir.ls with content of directory listing.
And as you want to leave shell open you can add aditional command "/bin/bash" or any other shell of your choice.
