What is the proper way to automate SSH/local command?

Question

I have gitolite on a Centos 5.5 box - when a repository is updated, I need to send a command to my bug tracking appliance to get the new commands. Right now, I have the following command working:

ssh bugserver -f 'cd /etc/repos/gitrepo && git pull origin prod && exit'

This seems a little dirty, though. Is there a better way to execute this sync?

Answer 1

You may be able to script something up using Expect, but that may be over complicated for something this simple. I've used it in the past to login to a remote power switch and cycle a given port, so I believe you could probably use it for this application as well.

Answer 2

Put it in a Makefile.

sync:
↹ssh bugserver -f 'cd /etc/repos/gitrepo && git pull origin prod && exit'

Then run it.

$ make sync

Note that ↹ is actually a tab character. See your editor's documentation for how to enter it (but CtrlVTab may work).

Answer 3

Here are two additional solutions, both assume you are using bash shell. The first is to create a function to perform the task, place that function in your ~/.bashrc file:

function bugsync() {
    ssh bugserver -f 'cd /etc/repos/gitrepo && git pull origin prod'
}

The second is to create an alias:

alias bugsync="ssh bugserver -f 'cd /etc/repos/gitrepo && git pull origin prod'"

Note that you don't need to specify the '&& exit' part of the command.

Answer 4

After considering the options, I decided to modify the command (removed the && exit) and left it as is for simplicity.