Access environment variables on remote host using ssh

Linux and Unix-Like Linux
1

How can i access environment variables on remote host using ssh

example:

# Remote server
[gacf@server1 ~]$ echo $MAIL
/var/spool/mail/gacf
[gacf@server1 ~]$

# Local server
[brendan@server2 ~]$ ssh gacf@server1 'echo $MAIL'
/var/mail/gacf
[brendan@server2 ~]$

Expected to find:

[brendan@server2 ~]$ ssh gacf@server1 'echo $MAIL'
/var/spool/mail/gacf
[brendan@server2 ~]$

Please help?

2

try

ssh user@remote "set" | grep -i mail

3

Thanks mark54g, but the problem is also that i want to execute scripts that exist on the remote host but the scripts use local variables that exist on the remote host.

Example:
# Remote server
[gacf@server1 ~]$ cat /tmp/runMe.sh
#!/bin/sh
echo $MAIL
[gacf@server1 ~]$ /tmp/runMe.sh
/var/spool/mail/gacf
[gacf@server1 ~]$

# Local server
[brendan@server2 ~]$ ssh gacf@server1 '/tmp/runMe.sh'
/var/mail/gacf
[brendan@server2 ~]$

Any ideas?

4

Might be that the MAIL variable is set by login(1) and later changed by a line in /etc/profile or ~/.profile (for ksh/bash/sh). Try sourcing your profile ahead of the command, eg.

$ ssh gacf@server1 '. /etc/profile ; . ~/.profile ; /tmp/runMe.sh'