How to run docker rmi $(docker images -a -q) in Jenkins as part of ssh script

I am building a Jenkins jobs to build docker container on AWS EC2 instance and this is a sample of a Jenkins script that is giving errors:

#!/bin/bash -e
# Not giving the IP here but I guess you can understand
HOST = Some IP address of EC2 instance in AWS 

# Current Project workspace 
# Download source code and create a tar and then SCP it in to AWS EC2
# So my Code is copied in to AWS EC2 instance now ...
# Now do the SSH and run the script on AWS EC2 instance
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i MySecrets.pem ec2-user@$HOST 
    "tar xvf pc.tar && 
    cd my_project_source_code && 
    docker stop $(docker ps -a -q) && 
    docker rmi $(docker images -a -q) && 
    sh -c 'nohup docker-compose kill  > /dev/null 2>&1 &' && 
    docker-compose build --no-cache && 
    sh -c 'nohup docker-compose up > /dev/null 2>&1 &' "

When I build this job in Jenkins, it fails with following error on output console :

“docker stop” requires at least 1 argument(s). See ‘docker stop –help’.

Usage: docker stop [OPTIONS] CONTAINER [CONTAINER…]

Stop one or more running containers Build step ‘Execute shell’ marked build as failure

So my question is what is wrong with my bash script here ?

On a separate note :

I am able to run the docker stop $(docker ps -a -q) when I ssh into the EC2 on a CLI. But when same commands run in the Jenkins jobs bash shell script it does not recognize this as valid script. What am I doing wrong here ? This appears to be some misunderstanding from my side on how to run this command in Jenkins Job’s bash shell script, but I am not entirely sure.

Answer

If you want substitutions within your script to run on the remote side, it needs to be passed to ssh in a context where the local shell won’t try to evaluate it first. Double quotes aren’t that context.

A quoted heredoc will fit the bill:

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i MySecrets.pem "ec2-user@$HOST" 'bash -s' <<'EOF'
 tar xvf pc.tar                                        || exit
 cd my_project_source_code                             || exit
 docker stop $(docker ps -a -q)                        || exit
 docker rmi $(docker images -a -q)                     || exit
 sh -c 'nohup docker-compose kill  > /dev/null 2>&1 &' || exit
 docker-compose build --no-cache                       || exit
 sh -c 'nohup docker-compose up > /dev/null 2>&1 &'    || exit
EOF