Best way to script remote SSH commands in Batch (W

Question

I am looking to script something in batch which will need to run remote ssh commands on Linux. I would want the output returned so I can either display it on the screen or log it.

I tried putty.exe -ssh user@host -pw password -m command_run but it doesn't return anything on my screen.

Anyone done this before?

Answer 1

You can also use Bash on Ubuntu on Windows directly. E.g.,

bash -c "ssh -t user@computer 'cd /; sudo my-command'"

Per Martin Prikryl's comment below:

The -t enables terminal emulation. Whether you need the terminal emulation for sudo depends on configuration (and by default you do no need it, while many distributions override the default). On the contrary, many other commands need terminal emulation.

Answer 2

As an alternative option you could install OpenSSH http://www.mls-software.com/opensshd.html and then simply ssh user@host -pw password -m command_run

Edit: After a response from user2687375 when installing, select client only. Once this is done you should be able to initiate SSH from command.

Then you can create an ssh batch script such as

ECHO OFF
CLS
:MENU
ECHO.
ECHO ........................
ECHO SSH servers
ECHO ........................
ECHO.
ECHO 1 - Web Server 1
ECHO 2 - Web Server 2
ECHO E - EXIT
ECHO.

SET /P M=Type 1 - 2 then press ENTER:
IF %M%==1 GOTO WEB1
IF %M%==2 GOTO WEB2
IF %M%==E GOTO EOF

REM ------------------------------
REM SSH Server details
REM ------------------------------

:WEB1
CLS
call ssh [e-mail]
cmd /k

:WEB2
CLS
call ssh [e-mail]
cmd /k

Answer 3

The -m switch of PuTTY takes a path to a script file as an argument, not a command.

Reference: https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/htmldoc/Chapter3.html#using-cmdline-m

So you have to save your command (command_run) to a plain text file (e.g. c:\path\command.txt) and pass that to PuTTY:

putty.exe -ssh user@host -pw password -m c:\path\command.txt

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Though note that you should use Plink (a command-line connection tool from PuTTY suite). It's a console application, so you can redirect its output to a file (what you cannot do with PuTTY).

A command-line syntax is identical, an output redirection added:

plink.exe -ssh user@host -pw password -m c:\path\command.txt > output.txt

See Using the command-line connection tool Plink.

And with Plink, you can actually provide the command directly on its command-line:

plink.exe -ssh user@host -pw password command > output.txt

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