How to remotely run a (shebang prefixed) node script using ssh?

Question

I want to remotely run a node.js script containing a shebang line through ssh, similarly as when running it locally.

myscript file:

#!/usr/bin/env node
var param  = process.argv[2] || 'help';
//... other js code

When running locally on each host – e.g. myscript arg1 – it runs successfully. When running remotely on a "sister" node in a cluster (containing the same file and directory structure, including nodeand myscript):

ssh -o "PasswordAuthentication no" [email protected] /path/to/myscript arg1

I get /usr/bin/env: ‘node’: No such file or directory error.

Am I missing a ssh param / option?

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Mode details: If I run

ssh -o "PasswordAuthentication no" [email protected] echo "hello"

It also works fine. Forgive me it this is obvious to you, I'm not an advanced Linux user, the ssh manual seemed a little bit overwhelming and tried a couple answers found here with no success:

1. What exactly does "/usr/bin/env node" do at the beginning of node files?
2. Run scripts remotely via SSH
3. how to run a script file remotely using ssh

Answer 1

If the node executable isn't already in your PATH environment variable at login, you could provide the full path to it in the shebang line of your script:

#!/usr/bin/env /full/path/to/node

As others have commented, you would have to update your script if the path to node ever changes. This is not ideal. Alternatively, you could force ssh to create a pseudo-terminal session by specifying the -t flag and run your script in an interactive bash shell:

ssh -t -o "PasswordAuthentication no" [email protected] 'bash -ic "/path/to/myscript arg1"'

Answer 2

Sebastian's answer inspired me to find a solution that doesn't hardcode the full path to node on the script. Basically, I make sure the remote PATH is available before running the command:

ssh -o "PasswordAuthentication no" [email protected] "export PATH=$PATH;/path/to/myscript arg1"

But this only worked for me because both local and remote servers have the same PATH value, since the local PATH is being set onto the remote session.

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Here there may be some ways to explore other solutions if your case is not like mine:

1. How do I set $PATH such that `ssh user@host command` works?
2. How to set PATH when running a ssh command?