sed + remove string on remote machine

Question

please advice what is wrong with my sed syntax ?

ssh postgres@172.34.5.76 sed -i '/archive_command/ s/#BARMAN#[ ]*//g'  /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf"

sed: -e expression #1, char 17: missing command

my target is to remove the #BARMAN# string on remote machine

when I do this on local machine its works as the following:

sed -i '/archive_command/ s/#BARMAN#[ ]*//g'  /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf"

I think there's a Q or A on here that covers this better; but you need another level of quoting to pass it through ssh — Jeff Schaller, Sep 13 '17 at 15:29
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4770/quoting-in-ssh-host-foo-and-ssh-host-sudo-su-user-c-foo-type-constructs — Jeff Schaller, Sep 13 '17 at 15:31

Hunter.S.Thompson · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-13T17:17:52.710

0

The syntax is wrong.

It has to be :

ssh postgres@host 'sed -i "/archive_command/ s/#BARMAN#[ ]*//g"  /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf"'

You forgot the quotes before and after the command. And added double quotes instead of single quotes so that there is no need to escape it.

edited Sep 13 '17 at 17:17

answered Sep 13 '17 at 15:30

Hunter.S.Thompson

8,954

Careful - there are single-quotes as part of the sed command, which will leave them exposed to splitting. – Jeff Schaller Sep 13 '17 at 15:36
Updated my answer to escape the quotes. @JeffSchaller Edit if I made a mistake. I am not sure if the escaping is done right. – Hunter.S.Thompson Sep 13 '17 at 15:39
Since there are no double-quotes or variables in the listed command, wrapping it with double quotes would work for this particular Q. – Jeff Schaller Sep 13 '17 at 15:40
Updated with double quotes. @yael I might not know sed too well, So I ask, is this the right syntax? /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf" With only a single double quote at the end of .conf ? – Hunter.S.Thompson Sep 13 '17 at 15:43

sed + remove string on remote machine

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