What is the cleanest way to ssh and run multiple commands in Bash?

Question

I already have an ssh agent set up, and I can run commands on an external server in Bash script doing stuff like:

ssh blah_server "ls; pwd;"
         


        

Answer 1

For anyone stumbling over here like me - I had success with escaping the semicolon and the newline:

First step: the semicolon. This way, we do not break the ssh command:

ssh  echo test\;ls
                    ^ backslash!

Listed the remote hosts /home directory (logged in as root), whereas

ssh  echo test;ls
                    ^ NO backslash

listed the current working directory.

Next step: breaking up the line:

                      v another backslash!
ssh  echo test\;\
ls

This again listed the remote working directory - improved formatting:

ssh \
  echo test\;\
  ls

If really nicer than here document or quotes around broken lines - well, not me to decide...

(Using bash, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.)