A quick, and wonderful response - thank you - one more thing though. How would you run your final version there in the background (so if it's in a script that script can continue on while that code runs?)

Perhaps like this?

Code:

nohup ssh username@host exec /usr/bin/env sh -s "arg1" "arg2" "arg3" <<"EOF" > logfile.log &
echo "First argument is $1"
echo "Second argument is $2"
echo "Third argument is $3"
EOF

Not sure if I really need the nohup and the ampersand ...... have tried the ssh -f option to fork to background but doesn't seem to like that..

---------- Post updated at 21:54 ---------- Previous update was at 21:45 ----------

In Fact I think I have it! Returning to my post syntax updating with your input I have running - awesome!

Code:

nohup ssh -q <targetserver> exec /usr/bin/ksh -s << EOF > <log> &
echo 1
echo 2
date
EOF

Works a treat! No output to my STOUD/screen (thanks to -q option on ssh) and the log is generated locally from commands passed to the remote box using an code block - absolute genuis - many thanks Corona688. I am indebted to you.

---------- Post updated 27-04-12 at 10:19 ---------- Previous update was 26-04-12 at 21:54 ----------

*UPDATE*

I have found now that while this works for simple commands I include a FOR loop within the EOF code-block and it errors as follows (below) - any ideas??

Code:

nohup ssh -q <targetserver> exec /usr/bin/ksh -s << EOF > <log> &
echo 1
echo 2
date
testvar="a b c"
for i in ${testvar}
do
 echo $i
done
EOF

Error is :

Code:

/usr/bin/ksh: syntax error at line X : `newline or ;' unexpected

---------- Post updated at 10:32 ---------- Previous update was at 10:19 ----------

Ah-ha! You can use $() to execute code in a here document. OK so here is ht working fix to that:

Code:

nohup ssh -q <targetserver> exec /usr/bin/ksh -s << EOF > <log> &
echo 1
echo 2
date
$(
testvar="a b c"
for i in ${testvar}
do
 echo $i
done
)
EOF