Copy files
How to copy files with style.
Use tar¶
tar and pipes can copy file system trees directly, preserving permissions.
tar cf - $src | tar xvf - -C $dst
Use rsync¶
rsync -avh --info=progress2 sourcefolder /destinationfolder --exclude thefoldertoexclude --exclude anotherfoldertoexclude
Copy a directory tree with exclusions¶
How to exclude some files/folders while copying a folder tree.
tar¶
A filter file .tarignore excludes stuff similar to .gitignore.12
tar -c -X .tarignore -f - srcfolder | tar xvf - -C dstfolder
The syntax is similar to .gitignore:
.tarignore
.DS_Store
.git
.gitignore
rsync¶
Use --exclude flag in rsync to exclude certain folder(s). 3
rsync -avh --progress sourcefolder /destinationfolder --exclude thefoldertoexclude --exclude anotherfoldertoexclude
Warning
The excluded directory paths are relative to the sourcefolder.
Copy files over SSH¶
How to copy files through the secure shell (SSH).
scp¶
scp works similar to the regular copy (cp) command.4
scp [options] username1@source_host:directory1/filename1 username2@destination_host:directory2/filename2
tar, pipe, and ssh commands¶
tar cvf - $localdir | ssh someone@somemachine '(cd destdir && tar xBf -)'
rsync¶
Use a ssh remote as a source or destination folder.
rsync -avh /source/folder/ username@nasip:dest/folder/
Secure FTP (SFTP)¶
Filezilla and WinSCP can access remote servers via the Secure FTP (SFTP) protocol.
Mount remote directory as a disk via sshfs¶
libfuse/sshfs mounts a remote machine's directory as a local disk.
sshfs [user@]hostname:[directory] mount-point
To unmount the directory after file operations are done:
fusermount -u mount-point