my $cmd = qq(ssh -qv $ssh_user\@$bkp_destination 'sed -i "s#.*$hostname#$skey#gI" /tmp/test.txt'); warn "Launching [[$cmd]]"; system($cmd) == 0 or die "Couldn't launch ssh connection via [[$cmd]]: $? / $!"; #### debug1: pledge: network debug1: Sending environment. debug1: Sending env LANG = en_GB.UTF-8 #ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2 root@HOSTA#g" /tmp/test.txt debug1: client_input_channel_req: channel 0 rtype exit-status reply 0 debug1: client_input_channel_req: channel 0 rtype eow@openssh.com reply 0 debug1: channel 0: free: client-session, nchannels 1 Transferred: sent 3312, received 2392 bytes, in 0.1 seconds Bytes per second: sent 51671.7, received 37318.5 debug1: Exit status 0 #### user@bkphost:/tmp$ cat test.txt As123312123 asdasdadasqsef3w4rfweweweffwerfew As123312123 asdasdadasqsef3w4rfweweweffwerfew i12311231231231 HOSTA As123312123 asdasdadasqsef3w4rfweweweffwerfew user@bkphost:/tmp$ echo $h HOSTA user@bkphost:/tmp$ echo $k ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2 root@HOSTA user@bkphost:/tmp$ sed -i "s#.*$h#$k#gI" test.txt user@bkphost:/tmp$ cat test.txt As123312123 asdasdadasqsef3w4rfweweweffwerfew As123312123 asdasdadasqsef3w4rfweweweffwerfew ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2 root@HOSTA As123312123 asdasdadasqsef3w4rfweweweffwerfew