I'm using the below command in a script:
ssh user@<ip> "ssh user1@<ip1> 'df -k /local/ | awk '{print \$4}' | tail -1'" so it escapes once the special character '$' but it sends the command as below in the second server:
debug1: Sending command: df -k /local/ | awk {print } | tail -1 awk: cmd. line:1: {print awk: cmd. line:1: ^ unexpected newline or end of string can someone help me with a solution?
There is no need for the exterior quotes in this particular case, actually.
ssh user@<ip> ssh user1@<ip1> "df -k /local/ | awk '{print \$4}' | tail -1" But there is also no reason to run the postprocessing on the remote host.
ssh user@<ip> ssh user1@<ip1> df -k /local/ | awk '{print $4}' | tail -1 You can also optimize out the tail:
ssh user@<ip> ssh user1@<ip1> df -k /local/ | awk '{x=$4}END{print x}' In the general case, if you need to mix both double and single quotes, you can backslash-escape double quotes inside double quotes, but single quotes inside single quotes are not possible.
ssh user@<ip> "ssh user1@<ip1> \"df -k /local/ | awk '{x=\$4}END{print x}'\"" Here document would be usefull
ssh user@<ip> <<EOIP ssh user1@<ip1> <<EOIP1 df -k /local/ | awk '{print \$4}' | tail -1 EOIP1 EOIP If the second server asks for a password, then this wont work, instead use sshpass to provide the password as
ssh user@<ip> <<EOIP sshpass -p password ssh user1@<ip1> <<EOIP1 df -k /local/ | awk '{print \$4}' | tail -1 EOIP1 EOIP Try this command with escaped quotes:
ssh user@<ip> "ssh user1@<ip1> \"df -k /local/ | awk '{print \$4}' | tail -1\"" 
ssh's ProxyCommand option, so that you can connect "directly" to <ip1> from your local host.