Executing a local script on a remote Machine - bash

Question

I have a script on my local machine, but need to run it on a remote machine without copying it over there (IE, I can't sftp it over and just run it there)
I currently have the following functioning command
echo 'cd /place/to/execute' | cat - test.sh | ssh -T user#hostname
However, I also need to provide a commandline argument to test.sh.
I tried just adding it after the .sh, like I would for local execution, but that didn't work:
echo 'cd /place/to/execute' | cat - test.sh "arg" | ssh -T user#hostname
"cat: arg: No such file or directory" is the resulting error

Answer 1

You need to override the arguments:
echo 'set -- arg; cd /place/to/execute' | cat - test.sh | ssh -T user#hostname
The above will set the first argument to arg.
Generally:
set -- arg1 arg2 arg3
will overwrite the $1, $2, $3 in bash.
This will basically make the result of cat - test.sh a standalone script that doesn't need any arguments`.

Answer 2

Depends on the complexity of the script that you have. You might want to rewrite it to be able to use rpcsh functionality to remotely execute shell functions from your script.
Using https://gist.github.com/Shadowfen/2b510e51da6915adedfb saved into /usr/local/include/rpcsh.inc (for example) you could have a script
#!/bin/sh
source /usr/local/include/rpcsh.inc
MASTER_ARG=""
function ahelper() {
# used by doremotely just to show that we can
echo "master arg $1 was passed in"
}
function doremotely() {
# this executes on the remote host
ahelper $MASTER_ARG > ~/sample_rpcsh.txt
}
# main
MASTER_ARG="newvalue"
# send the function(s) and variable to the remote host and then execute it
rpcsh -u user -h host -f "ahelper doremotely" -v MASTER_ARG -r doremotely
This will give you a ~/sample_rpcsh.txt file on the remote host that contains
master arg newvalue was passed in
Copy of rpcsh.inc (in case link goes bad):
#!/bin/sh
# create an inclusion guard (to prevent multiple inclusion)
if [ ! -z "${RPCSH_GUARD+xxx}" ]; then
# already sourced
return 0
fi
RPCSH_GUARD=0
# rpcsh -- Runs a function on a remote host
# This function pushes out a given set of variables and functions to
# another host via ssh, then runs a given function with optional arguments.
# Usage:
# rpcsh -h remote_host -u remote_login -v "variable list" \
# -f "function list" -r mainfunc [-- param1 [param2]* ]
#
# The "function list" is a list of shell functions to push to the remote host
# (including the main function to run, and any functions that it calls).
#
# Use the "variable list" to send a group of variables to the remote host.
#
# Finally "mainfunc" is the name of the function (from "function list")
# to execute on the remote side. Any additional parameters specified (after
# the --)gets passed along to mainfunc.
#
# You may specify multiple -v "variable list" and -f "function list" options.
#
# Requires that you setup passwordless access to the remote system for the script
# that will be running this.
rpcsh() {
if ! args=("$(getopt -l "host:,user:,pushvars:,pushfuncs:,run:" -o "h:u:v:f:r:A" -- "$#")")
then
echo getopt failed
logger -t ngp "rpcsh: getopt failed"
exit 1
fi
sshvars=( -q -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null )
eval set -- "${args[#]}"
pushvars=""
pushfuncs=""
while [ -n "$1" ]
do
case $1 in
-h|--host) host=$2;
shift; shift;;
-u|--user) user=$2;
shift; shift;;
-v|--pushvars) pushvars="$pushvars $2";
shift; shift;;
-f|--pushfuncs) pushfuncs="$pushfuncs $2";
shift; shift;;
-r|--run) run=$2;
shift; shift;;
-A) sshvars=( "${sshvars[#]}" -A );
shift;;
-i) sshvars=( "${sshvars[#]}" -i $2 );
shift; shift;;
--) shift; break;;
esac
done
remote_args=( "$#" )
vars=$([ -z "$pushvars" ] || declare -p $pushvars 2>/dev/null)
ssh ${sshvars[#]} ${user}#${host} "
#set -x
$(declare -p remote_args )
$vars
$(declare -f $pushfuncs )
$run ${remote_args[#]}
"
}