One‑Liner SSH Tricks: Jump Directly to a Remote Directory and Run Commands

Typical two‑step SSH workflow

Users often connect to a remote Linux host and then issue a separate cd command to reach the working directory.

ssh user@remote-system
cd /path/to/dir

One‑liner with pseudo‑terminal allocation

Adding the -t option forces SSH to allocate a pseudo‑terminal, allowing a command string to be executed immediately after login. The remote shell can be started with exec $SHELL (or bash) so the session remains interactive.

ssh -t user@host 'cd /desired/path ; exec $SHELL'

Variations

Keep an interactive Bash after changing directory:

ssh -t user@host 'cd /desired/path && exec bash'

Start a login shell (the -l flag makes Bash behave as a login shell):

ssh -t user@host 'cd /desired/path && exec bash -l'

Chain additional commands, e.g., list files before opening a shell:

ssh -t user@host 'cd /desired/path && ls -al && exec $SHELL'

Detecting the remote default shell

If the remote host does not use Bash, you can query the current shell after login with echo $SHELL or ps -p $$ and adjust the command string accordingly.

Alternative: modify .bashrc on the remote host

For users who prefer not to type a long command each time, a permanent cd can be added to the remote user's ~/.bashrc file.

vim ~/.bashrc
# Append the following line
cd /home/pi/tests >/dev/null

After saving, either source the file ( source ~/.bashrc or . ~/.bashrc) or start a new SSH session; every new login will automatically change to the specified directory.

Caveats

The .bashrc method is static—changing the target directory requires editing the file again. The one‑liner approach with -t is more flexible for occasional tasks because the directory can be changed on the fly without modifying remote configuration.