No need to prefix the command with `echo | '. If you want OpenSSL to have no standard input (so it closes its connection), just redirect standard input from /de

No need to prefix the command with `echo | '. If you want OpenSSL to have no standard input (so it closes its connection), just redirect standard input from /dev/null. $ openssl ... </dev/null | grep ... EDIT: This also avoids OpenSSL sending its only input character (the newline that echo produces) to the server, which will throw it away anyway.