[xsta]

How do i transfer multiple files with scp? Or a full content of a folder?

[fitter]

You can do this with the use of wild cards. At present scp doesn't allow for directory transfer (i.e., scp directory [email protected]:~), but you can get around it with wild cards, like so:

<font face = "courier">user% ls
thingone thingthree.txt thingtwo
user% scp * [email protected]:~/backup
thingone 100% |*****************************| 56 00:00
thingthree.txt 100% |*****************************| 7359 00:00
thingtwo 100% |*****************************| 345 00:00
</font>

But say you only want to scp thingtwo and thingthree.txt. How would you do that? Like so:

<font face = "courier">user% scp thingt* [email protected]:~/backup
thingthree.txt 100% |*****************************| 7359 00:00
thingtwo 100% |*****************************| 345 00:00
</font>

The asterisk matches anything, but the other letters must match exactly. That's why, in the second example, thingtwo and thingthree.txt are copied, but not thingone: it doesn't match the pattern.

[xsta]

thanks

[petej]

If you want to copy multiple files from the remote machine, you need to escape the asterisk with a backslash, like this:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1"face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial">code:</font><HR><pre><font size=1 face=courier>scp remotebox:somedirectory/\* .</font>[/code]

[petej]

Originally posted by xsta:
<STRONG>How do i transfer multiple files with scp? Or a full content of a folder?</STRONG>

The best way to do this is to use rsync over scp, instead of straight scp. rsync takes a little getting used to -- read the man page by issuing <font face = "courier">man rsync</font> to see how it's done. rsync will copy entire directory trees.

[utidjian]

Ummm... scp does do directories, like so:

scp -r userid@somehost:somedir .

It will then recursively copy all files (and subfolders) in somedir to the local directory... placing the entire tree in a folder named somedir in the local directory.

For more useful info see man scp

[Paul McCann]

Ummm... scp does do directories, like so:

scp -r userid@somehost:somedir .

It will then recursively copy all files (and subfolders) in somedir to the local directory... placing the entire tree in a folder named somedir in the local directory.

For more useful info see man scp

True indeed, and very useful if you've got nice simple directory trees to copy: but (as usual), watch out for what it does with links and the like; results could be a bit nasty. "tar" can do things a little more carefully here.

(Of course, as mentioned above, using rsync is probably the nicest way to achieve remote copying/mirroring etc; trouble is, you may not have an rsync-enabled machine at the other end of the line. You might want to try buying the nice sysadmin a beer if that's the case (actually, a milkshake might be more effective if your sysadmin is anything like my old boss).)

To use tar to copy a local directory "togo" from your current working directory to a directory "togo" inside a directory "junk" in your home directory on the remote machine use

tar cf - togo | (ssh remote.machine.address "cd junk; tar xf -")

If you want to preserve permissions on the files add a "p" to the tar flags on both ends of hte pipe:

tar cpf - togo | (ssh remote.machine.address "cd junk; tar xpf -")

Actually this is a bit of a painful way to have to do things: if you're happy to dump the directory in your home directory on the remote machine you can avoid the spawning of the shell and instead use the more symmetric:

tar cpf - togo | ssh remote.machine.address tar xpf -

Hmm, with all this scp/tar/rsync loveliness floating around, why does anyone ever bother with sftp? (1) Because it's there, and (2) because you can leverage your hard-earned ftp knowledge, I suppose! Any other "advantages"?

Cheers,
Paul

[utidjian]

Cool... though it may be desirable to recurse symlinks from the original... or not. tar does give you more control over that property. scp will faithfully recurse all symlinks.

rsync is definitely the way to go for some jobs. However, the problem I, and many others, have had with rsync is that it puts a tremendous load on both the transmitting and receiving machines. It also dies without complaint on very large "syncs" ( tens of gigs ).

[Wm. H. Magill]

Ok... scp -r is recursive for directories. And wildcards work file for "pushing" files.
But what if you want to use scp to copy a list of files from a remote machine to a local machine...

Nominally something like:
scp user@remote-host:'{file1 file2 file3}' .
except that syntax doesn't work.

I've tried a couple of differnt shells but haven't found a working syntax to copy FROM a remote machine.

[davignes]

Originally posted by Wm. H. Magill:
<STRONG>Ok... scp -r is recursive for directories. And wildcards work file for "pushing" files.
But what if you want to use scp to copy a list of files from a remote machine to a local machine...

Nominally something like:
scp user@remote-host:'{file1 file2 file3}' .
except that syntax doesn't work.

I've tried a couple of differnt shells but haven't found a working syntax to copy FROM a remote machine.</STRONG>

on a remote machine I touched three files
touch file1 file2 file3
then from my ibook I was able to scp them

[daniel:~] dv% scp dv@bart:file\* .
[email protected]'s password:
file1 100% |*****************************| 0 00:00
file2 100% |*****************************| 0 00:00
file3 100% |*****************************| 0 00:00

I used the \ b/c I was getting an error without them.
your shell tries to expand file* if you don'.

[davignes]

Originally posted by Wm. H. Magill:
<STRONG>Ok... scp -r is recursive for directories. And wildcards work file for "pushing" files.
But what if you want to use scp to copy a list of files from a remote machine to a local machine...

Nominally something like:
scp user@remote-host:'{file1 file2 file3}' .
except that syntax doesn't work.

I've tried a couple of differnt shells but haven't found a working syntax to copy FROM a remote machine.</STRONG>

also if you didn't want to use wildcards you couls just use
scp user@host:"file1 file2 fil3" .

that worked for me. On a Linux pc I touched three files
touch bob joe heh
and from my ibook using tcsh I was able to scp them fine.

[daniel:~] dv% scp [email protected]:"bob joe heh" .
[email protected]'s password:
bob 100% |*****************************| 0 00:00
joe 100% |*****************************| 0 00:00
heh 100% |*****************************| 0 00:00

[msykes]

Originally posted by Wm. H. Magill:
<STRONG>Ok... scp -r is recursive for directories. And wildcards work file for "pushing" files.
But what if you want to use scp to copy a list of files from a remote machine to a local machine...

Nominally something like:
scp user@remote-host:'{file1 file2 file3}' .
except that syntax doesn't work.

I've tried a couple of differnt shells but haven't found a working syntax to copy FROM a remote machine.</STRONG>

In my experience, you just need to add the double quotes (") around the files on the remote machine.

scp [email protected]:*.txt . doesn't work...

but

scp "[email protected]:*.txt" . does...

[oeyvind]

Originally posted by msykes:
<STRONG>

In my experience, you just need to add the double quotes (") around the files on the remote machine.

scp [email protected]:*.txt . doesn't work...

but

scp "[email protected]:*.txt" . does...</STRONG>

You can also use this:

scp [email protected]\\*.txt .

and for name with spaces,

scp [email protected]:this\\\ file\\\ tocopy .

[(",)PB12]

Hi guys I have a slightly different problem with scp. I'm trying to upload a file to the school's server using scp. But i'm constantly getting this error message.
scp: warning: Executing scp1.
scp: FATAL: Executing ssh1 in compatibility mode failed (Check that scp1 is in your PATH).
lost connection

I'm pretty sure i've got the command right its something like this
scp localfilename loginName@host:~/public_html

Can someone help me? Thanks

[Arkham_c]

Originally posted by (",)PB12:
Hi guys I have a slightly different problem with scp. I'm trying to upload a file to the school's server using scp. But i'm constantly getting this error message.
scp: warning: Executing scp1.
scp: FATAL: Executing ssh1 in compatibility mode failed (Check that scp1 is in your PATH).
lost connection

I'm pretty sure i've got the command right its something like this
scp localfilename loginName@host:~/public_html

Can someone help me? Thanks

Looks like maybe the remote server is running the old ssh1 instead of ssh2 or OpenSSH (which supports both).

You can force ssh and scp to use protocol version 1 with the -1 command line option. But SSH1 has several known vulnerabilities and should not be considered secure.

[spiky_dog]

Originally posted by (",)PB12:
Hi guys I have a slightly different problem with scp. I'm trying to upload a file to the school's server using scp. But i'm constantly getting this error message.
scp: warning: Executing scp1.
scp: FATAL: Executing ssh1 in compatibility mode failed (Check that scp1 is in your PATH).
lost connection

I'm pretty sure i've got the command right its something like this
scp localfilename loginName@host:~/public_html

Can someone help me? Thanks

i ran into this problem too, and had to use scp from the other end. ie log into the school server and scp the file off of your box:

log in
scp locallogin@yourcomp:/path/to/localfilename ./