Copying files using a ssh connection

To copy files over ssh we can either use sftp protocol and mounting the filesystem as a network drive:

Adding sftp network folder dolphin

1. Go to network item in places navigation
2. add nework folder
3. secure shell ssh
4. Name = Label of the created drive

• User = username to which to logon on the remote machine
• Server = Local/Remote ip of the remote maching (ifconfig + local ip when on the same network/wlan/lan)
• Port = port on which the ssh server is hosted (22 if not specified differently on /etc/ssh/sshd-config)
• Protocol = sftp (essentially ftp file transfer over ssh connection)
• Folder = Which path to mount as the network storage (“/” = root, “/home/user” = the home folder of user )
  -> Save and connect \

5. - Network -> new network drive -> right click -> add to places (to add a shortcut to dolphin)

Copying files via “scp”

scp -P targetport path/on/host/machine username@hostip:/guest/path/on/target

Example:

Transfer of bash settings and all alias settings from 1 machine to the remote machine:

scp -P 5555 ~/.bashrc peitl@192.168.0.117:~/.bashrc

Then execute “. ~/.bashrc” on target machine to reload bash settings

remote command execution (for the same thing)

ssh -t peitl@192.168.0.117 -p 5555 ". ~/.bashrc"

(Note that the “” are necessary as otherwise ~ is evaluated on the host machine instead of the remote machine, which points to different paths)

Alternative copying procedure “rsync”

Powerful copy and sync tool to backup, move and compare files.

rsync -e "ssh -p 5555" -avz ~/.bashrc peitl@192.168.0.117:"~/.bashrc"

-a recursion on the path and preserving everything
-v ouput verbose log (always useful for debugging)
-z compress source before moving (speeds up ssh)

Advantage

-> compression -> faster than scp -> better for larger files

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