login into a directory after sshing into a machine

To login into a machine via ssh and cd into a particular directory immediately afterwards, use

ssh -t user@machine.name 'cd ~/destination/directory && exec /bin/bash --login -i'

The -t option forces the ssh to open a pseudo-terminal. Without the -t option, ssh does not open the pseudo-terminal when a command is specified.

Commands can also contain variable names. For example,

export DYNAMIC=${PWD#$HOME/}
ssh -t user@machine.name "cd ~/$DYNAMIC && exec bash --login -i"

Other possible uses of the -t option

To see the output of top of a remote machine, use

ssh -t user@remote.machine.name top