Differentiating between ssh connection failures and ssh command failures

[Stephen Harris]

On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 11:14:07AM +1000, Damien Miller wrote:
> ssh server.example.com /usr/bin/do/something
> r=$?
> if [ $r -eq 0 ] ; then
> 	echo success
> elif [ $r -eq 255 ] ; then
> 	echo ssh failed
> else
> 	echo command failed
> fi


ssh remoteserver exit 255

Hmm :-)

exit(-1)  aka exit(255) is a pretty standard "generic failure code"
for many programs.

The problem, really, is that "exit code" is the wrong thing to test for.

x=`ssh remoteserver "echo CONNECTED && somecommand"`

And then see if CONNECTED appears in the output to show successful
connection.

-- 

rgds
Stephen