SSH to pfSense and run commands

Question

If I ssh to pfSense I have to select 8 to access the shell then I can run my commands as root.

If I create a new user I can ssh direct to the shell, but have no root access.

I'm trying to write a script that will log me in, select option 8 and then run my commands.

    $rules="rules information is place in this var. 1n is used for new lines"
    ssh admin@192.168.1.1 << EOF
      printf "8\n"
      printf $rules > /home/rules;
    EOF

This fails and won't log me in or create my file.

If I change it to:

ssh -tt admin@192.168.1.1 << EOF
  8
  echo -e "$rules" > /home/rules;
  exit
  0
EOF

I get logged in but my $rules values are echoed to the screen not to the new rules file I want to create.

Any one advise how I can do this?

UPDATE

I've partially got this working by using: printf "rules" > /home/rules the only issue with that is $rules contains a variable which isn't shown in the resulting file.

eg:

$rules="rules information is places in this var.\nis used for new lines\n$additional['rules']['local']";

is written to the file as:

rules information is places in this var.
is used for new lines
['rules']['local']

Note $additional is missing before ['rules']['local']

Any way I can include that correctly ? I've tried adding \ before $additional, I've tried changing the var so it's not enclosed in " not ' and then updated the single quotes in the string.

Each time I end up with each line from $rules being echoed to the remote command line and not into the remote file.

Any ideas ? Thanks

Answer 1

Here is what I've got:

bash-3.2$ A="coucou" B="a$Aa"; echo  "${B}"
a
bash-3.2$ A="coucou" B="a${A}a"; echo  "${B}"
acoucoua
bash-3.2$

So, could you try with braces {}?

more about this on this answer