copy directory from another computer on Linux

Question

On a computer with IP address like 10.11.12.123, I have a folder document. I want to copy that folder to my local folder /home/my-pc/doc/ using the shell.

I tried like this:

scp -r smb:10.11.12.123/other-pc/document /home/my-pc/doc/ 

but it's not working.

Answer 1

If the two directories (document and /home/my-pc/doc/) you mentioned are on the same 10.11.12.123 machine.

then:

cp -ai document /home/my-pc/doc/

else:

scp -r document/ [email protected]:/home/my-pc/doc/

Answer 2

So you can use below command to copy your files.

scp -r <source> <destination>

(-r: Recursively copy entire directories)

eg:

scp -r [email protected]:/other-pc/document /home/my-pc/doc

To identify the location you can use the pwd command, eg:

kasun@kasunr:~/Downloads$ pwd
/home/kasun/Downloads

Answer 3

In addition to the comment, when you look at your host-to-host copy options on Linux today, rsync is by far, the most robust solution around. It is brought to you by the SAMBA team[1] and continues to enjoy active development. Most distributions include the rsync package by default. (if not, you should find an easily installable package for your distro or you can download it from rsync.samba.org ).

The basic use of rsync for host-to-host directory copy is:

$ rsync -uav srchost:/path/to/dir /path/to/dest

-uav simply recursively copies -ua only new or changed files preserving file & directory times and permissions while providing -v verbose output. You will be prompted for the username/password on 10.11.12.123 unless your have setup ssh-keys to allow public/private key authentication (see: ssh-keygen for key generation)

If you notice, the syntax is basically the same as that for scp with a slight difference in the options: (e.g. scp -rv srchost:/path/to/dir /path/to/dest). rsync will use ssh for secure transport by default, so you will want to insure sshd is running on your srchost (10.11.12.123 in your case). If you have name resolution working (or a simple entry in /etc/hosts for 10.11.12.123) you can use the hostname for the remote host instead of the remote IP. Regardless, you can always transfer the files you are interested in with:

$ rsync -uav 10.11.12.123:/other-pc/document /home/my-pc/doc/

Note: do NOT include a trailing / after document if you want to copy the directory itself. If you do include a trailing / after document (i.e. 10.11.12.123:/other-pc/document/) you are telling rsync to copy the contents, (i.e. the files and directories under) document to 10.11.12.123:/other-pc/ without also copying the document directory.

The reason rsync is far superior to other copy apps is it provides options to truly synchronize filesystems and directory trees both locally and between your local machine and remote host. Meaning, in your case, if you have used rsync to transfer files to /home/my-pc/doc/ and then make changes to the files or delete files on 10.11.12.123, you can simply call rsync again and have the changes/deletions reflected in /home/my-pc/doc/. (look at the several flavors of the --delete option for details in rsync --help or in man 1 rsync)

For these, and many more reasons, it is well worth the time to familiarize yourself with rsync. It is an invaluable tool in any Linux user's hip pocket. Hopefully this will solve your problem and get you started.

Footnotes

[1] the same folks that "Opened Windows to a Wider World" allowing seemless connection between windows/Linux hosts via the native windows server message block (smb) protocol. samba.org

Answer 4

If you want to copy from B to A if you are logged into B: then

scp /source username@a:/destination

If you want to copy from B to A if you are logged into A: then

scp username@b:/source /destination