SSH for running a remote binary stalls - bash

I am configuring a vs-code extension to send a cross-compiled binary to a raspberry pi.
Every step from compiling to copying the file runs fine.
ssh pi#123.123.123.123 "sudo mkdir /home/pi/remotePi/";
ssh pi#123.123.123.123 "sudo rm /home/pi/remotePi/blink_example";
ssh pi#123.123.123.123 "sudo chown pi /home/pi/remotePi/";
scp -l 8192 build/blink_example pi#123.123.123.123:/home/pi/remotePi/ &&
ssh pi#123.123.123.123 "echo "scp complete"" &&
ssh pi#123.123.123.123 "/home/pi/remotePi/blink_example"
Output:
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/home/pi/remotePi/’: File exists
blink_example 100% 8692 277.3KB/s 00:00
scp complete
But when I try to run the file through an SSH command, the command stalls.
ssh pi#123.123.123.123 "home/pi/remotePi/blink_example"
It will eventually run, but it can take around 10 minutes. If I ssh into the pi and run the binary through an actual terminal, it runs immediately.
I have noticed that when it finally runs (using my extension), there are a lot of print statements (the test code just prints the read value from a pin). Does that mean it is running, but I'm maybe not getting the prints until there is enough to fill a packet?
So my question is, how can I run a binary on a remote machine and receive the terminal output in a timely manner?
Edit
I modified my program to not have any delays between print statements (essentially spamming stdout). This resulted in the ssh command ssh pi#123.123.123.123 "/home/pi/remotePi/blink_example" to return immediately and with all the prints.
This leads me to believe that there is a buffer that I need to fill (or limit the size of) before any terminal information is returned to the local device from the remote.

I figured out a solution, but it doesn't answer any of the questions about why spamming stdout will cause ssh to give a terminal output sooner.
In the original blink_example, I was using printf("pin 17: %d\n", digitalRead(17)); for displaying the value.
I converted the test application to c++ (not a terribly difficult task) and used std::cout << "pin 17: " << digitalRead(17) << std::endl;. Using this caused the terminal to give feedback right away.

Related

Transferring large files using SFTP using linux bash scripts

I am intending to send a huge file around 1+GB over to the remote side using SFTP. However, it seems to work fine in interactive mode(when I sftp#xx.xx.xx.xx and enter the password manually, then I key in the put command). But when I run it in shell, it always timeout.
I have set the client and server ClientAliveTimeout settings at /etc/ssh/sshd_config but it still occurs.
Below is the linux script code
sshpass -p "password" sftp user#xx.xx.xx.xx << END
put <local file path> <remote file path>
exit
END
The transfer of files takes 10 min when using interactive mode
when run using script, the file was incomplete based on filesize.
Update: Current transfer during interactive mode shows the small files went through but the big file was stalled halfway during transfer.
I prefere lftp for such things
lftp -u user,passwd domain.tld -e "put /path/file; quit"
lftp can handle sftp too
open sftp://username:password#server.address.com

SSH Unknown TTY Error Message

When trying to run the command ssh user#ip 'command', I keep receiving this error: can't get tty settingscan't set orig mode. I have tried googling this and searching here but have not found anything referring to this message. I am trying to automate connecting to a Cisco wireless access point (2800 model) using Golang to run a command then exit, but this message pops up each time. I can log in normally using ssh user#ap_ip, but using the shorthand ssh user#ap_ip 'command' or trying the equivalent in Golang gives the error message above. Anyone know what's going on?
ssh without explicit command given will allocate a terminal while ssh with a command given will by default not. It looks like the command you execute needs a terminal. In this case use the -t option, i.e. ssh -t user#ip command. From the documentation:
-t Force pseudo-terminal allocation. This can be used to execute
arbitrary screen-based programs on a remote machine, which can be
very useful, e.g. when implementing menu services. Multiple -t
options force tty allocation, even if ssh has no local tty.

How to return to the script once sudo is done

I am on a server and running a script file that has following code.
ssh username#servername
sudo su - root
cd /abc/xyz
mkdir asdfg
I am able to ssh... but then the next command is not working.. the script is not sudo-ing. any idea?
Edit: Able to create a mech id and then do the things.. though still looking for the answer to above question :|
First of all your command will "stuck" on the first line because it will go into an interactive mode. The ssh command will require a password to be provided by a user (unless there is an sshkey being used) . And if the ssh is logged into the remote server then it will wait for user commands from standard input.
Secondly the lines following the ssh command will be executed only when the first process has exited. This is why your script is not "sudoing" - it's waiting for the ssh to end.
So if your point is to run a command on a remote server then put the command as a parameter into the same line as ssh connection. In your case:
ssh user#server sudo su - root
But this will not be of satisfaction for you. I suggest you create a script of what you want to execute on the remote server and then execute the script.
ssh user#server scriptName
The sudo thing here is very tricky because again your script might get stuck in the interactive mode waiting for a password to be inserted so I suggest you think again on the basis of the script.
mb47!
You want to run the script on the remote computer, correct?
On the remote machine, create a file containing the commands you would like to execute.
Then, on the other machine, run ssh user#machine /path/to/script/you/created/earlier
I hope this helps!
ALinuxLover

Running ssh sudo asynchronously

I'm trying to run a command with sudo on a remote machine. When I do it directly with
ssh -t -t -t myserver -q "sudo otheruser<<EOF
remotescript.sh
EOF"
it works fine, but if I add & at the end of the last line then it doesn't work. Why? How can I make it work?
I fact I'm running several such commands (to different servers) from a local script and save each output in a different file and would like them to run asynchronously.
Note: running ssh with otheruser#myserver is not an option. I really need to run sudo after I logged in.
Remove requiretty from sudo config (/etc/sudoers) on the remote machine.
Also add the -f option to ssh which puts the command in background (man: "must be used when ssh is run in the background").
The "&" should not be needed when using -f.
E.g:
ssh -f -t -t -t myserver -q "sudo otheruser<<EOF
remotescript.sh
EOF"
Use expect to control your ssh. It could be used to give automated response to the remote shell. Most processes when ran asynchronously suspends itself or becomes suspended when it tries to read input from terminal since another foreground process (the main shell) is using it.
There's a post about ssh and expect lately here: https://superuser.com/questions/509545/how-to-run-a-local-script-in-remote-server-using-expect-and-bash-script
Also try to disown your process after placing it on the background with disown to keep it from job control. e.g.
whole_command &
disown
Changing its input to /dev/null might also help but it could hang forever if it really needs input from user.
whole_command <&- < /dev/null &
disown

cp command fails when run in a script called by Hudson

This one is a puzzler. If I run a command from the command line to copy a file remotely it works perfectly. If I run that same command inside a script on the server (that hosts Hudson), it runs perfectly as well, same for running the job as hudson from the command line. However, if I run that exact command as a function inside a bash script from a Hudson job, it fails with:
cp: cannot stat '/opt/flash_board.tar.gz': No such file or directory
The variable is defined as:
original_tarball=flash_board.tar.gz
and is in scope (variable expansion works correctly in the script).
The original command is:
ssh -n -o stricthostkeychecking=no root#$IP_ADDRESS ssh -n -o stricthostkeychecking=no 169.254.0.2 cp /opt/$original_tarball /opt/$original_tarball.bak
I've also tried it as:
ssh -n -p 1601 -o stricthostkeychecking=no root#$IP_ADDRESS cp /opt/$original_tarball /opt/$original_tarball.bak
which points to the correct port, but fails in exactly the same way.
For reference all the variables have been checked to be valid. I originally thought this was a substitution error, but that doesn't seem to be the case, so then I tried running it with Hudson credentials as:
sudo -u hudson ssh -n -o stricthostkeychecking=no root#$IP_ADDRESS ssh -n -o stricthostkeychecking=no 169.254.0.2 cp /opt/$original_tarball /opt/$original_tarball.bak
I get the exact same results (it works). So it's only when this command is run from a Hudson job that it fails.
Here's the sequence of events:
Hudson job sets parameters & calls a shell script.
A function inside the script tries to copy the files remotely from an embedded Montevista (Linux) board across an SPI bus to a second embedded Arago (Linux) board
Both boards are physically on the same mother board, but there's no way to directly access the Arago board except through a serial console session (which isn't feasible, this is an automation job that runs across the network).
I've tried this using ssh with -p 1601 (the correct port to the Arago side).
Can I use scp to copy a remote file to the same location as the remote file with a different file extension?
Something like:
scp -o stricthostkeychecking=no root#$IP_ADDRESS /opt/$original_tarball /opt/$original_tarball.bak
I had a couple of the devs take a look at this and they were stumped as well. Anyone got any ideas (A) why this fails & (B) how to work around it. I'm pretty sure I can write a script to run locally on the remote machine, but that doesn't seem like it should be necessary.
Oh, and if I run the exact same command on the Montevista board (which means I don't have to go across the SPI bus (169.254.0.2), it works perfectly from the Hudson job.
So, this turned out to be something completely unrelated to the question. I broke the problem down into little pieces with a test Hudson script, adding more and more complexity from the original script till it failed as before.
It turned out to be pilot error, I'd written an if statement to differentiate between the two boards (Arago & Montevista) and then abstracted out the variables passed to the if statement to the point where it was ambiguous which board was being passed in, so the if logic always grabbed the first match (as it should) and the flash script I was trying to copy on the Arago board didn't exist on the Montevista board (well, it has a different name) so the error returned was absolutely correct.
Sorry for the spin up and thanks for all the effort to help.
cp: cannot stat '/opt/flash_board.tar.gz': No such file or directory
This is saying that Hudson cannot see the file. I would do a ls -la /opt in that shell script of yours. This will show you the permissions on the /opt directory, and whether your script can list that file.
While you're at it, do a du -f on the Hudson machine too and see if that /opt directory is a remote mount or something that could be problematic.
You've already said that you logged in as the user that runs the Hudson task and execute it from the workspace directory.
Right now, I suspect that the directory permission is an issue.
The obvious way that goes wrong is that somehow it is being run on the wrong machine, possibly due to either a line length limit, or to weird quoting issues.
I'd try changing the command to … uname -a or … hostname -f to see if you get the right machine. Or, alternatively, … cp /proc/cpuinfo /tmp/this-machine and then see which machine gets the file.
edit: I see now that OP has answered his own question. I guess I'll leave this here in case it helps any future visitors with similar issues. I guess I should add "or not running the command you thing you're running" to the reasons why it could happen.

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