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I frequently login to a server, then cd into a specific directory. Is it possible to simplify these two commands into one?
ssh bob@foo
cd /home/guest
I'd like to avoid changing anything on 'foo' if possible, as I'll have to clear it with the server administrator. I use bash, but I am open to answers in other shells.
This works with OpenSSH:
ssh -t bob@foo 'cd /home/guest && exec bash -l'
The last argument runs in your login shell. The -t flag passed to ssh forces ssh to allocate a pseudo-terminal, which is necessary for an interactive shell. The -l flag passed to bash starts bash as a login shell.
... && exec bash -l
Aug 16, 2013 at 4:55
Just put as the last line of your ~bob/.bash_profile file on foo:
cd /home/guest >& /dev/null
Now each time you log in (whether by SSH or otherwise), the cd command will run. No mucking around with ssh is necessary.
I know you wrote that you'd "like to avoid changing anything on 'foo' if possible," but if the bob@foo account is yours, changing your own .bash_profile should be acceptable, no?
&> /dev/null. It prevents any error message that may be shown just in case cd fails to change directory to /home/directory. If you want to see those messages you could just exclude that.
Aug 16, 2013 at 4:54
>& and &> are the same in Bash. The latter style is preferred though.
You can also do it this way, similar to @EvanTeitelman's solution:
$ ssh -t bob@foo "cd /tmp ; bash"
Or if you don't know the shell on the other end:
$ ssh -t bob@foo "cd /tmp && exec \$SHELL"
Or like this:
$ ssh -t bob@foo 'cd /tmp && exec $SHELL'
