Run command on remote Unix machine without interactive session

Question

How can I run a command on a remote Unix machine without starting a interactive session?

neu242 · Answer 1 · 2009-07-19 17:45:03Z

up vote 7 down vote accepted

Just use ssh:

ssh yourusername@yourserver.com "ls -l"

answered Jul 19 '09 at 17:45

feedback

Brad Gilbert · Answer 2 · 2009-07-19 18:10:36Z

You could add a Subsystem entry to your sshd_config file, if you plan on running a specific command regularly.

Subsystem samba-force-election /usr/bin/smbcontrol winbindd force-election

Then you can call it with the command 'ssh -s samba-force-election'.

Most systems have at least one defined:

Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server

Which sftp, and scp call internally when they attempt to run.

You can set it so that no-one has an interactive root shell, but allow them to run commands as root.
It will automatically work on all computers that need to run the command, and you won't have to update any of them if you need to change the command that is run.

2 Answers