How to Upload and Synchronise Files with SCP / RSYNC?

SCP and RSYNC are services used for copying or synchronizing files between separate locations, respectively.

SCP (secure copy) is based on ssh and works by reading the source file and copying it to the selected destination - locally or through a network.

RSYNC can also be used to copy files locally or over the network as scp above, but in addition it synchronizes the data. It does not copy and paste the entire directory, but is able to detect changes and replicate them to the destination.

SCP

General syntax used for scp:

scp [options] [source] [destination]

A basic example will look something like this:

scp home/test/file1 [email protected]:/home/eouser/

Explanation:

  1. home/test/file1 is the source file

  2. eouser is a username of the server

  3. 185.178.13.12 is the ip address of the remote server

  4. home/eouser/ is the destination folder

Output:

file1 100% 230 43.6KB/s 00:00

Options:

  • -r This is mainly used for copying folders, and is used to recursively copy entire directories.

  • -P Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host.

  • -c Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfer.

  • -C Enables compression

  • -i identity_file This option is necessary if the default files for authenticating the ssh connection (id_rsa) are not used.

scp example

scp -i ~/.ssh/<private_key>  <file/directory> [email protected]:/home/eouser/

scp output:

<file> 100% 1680    49.6KB/s   00:00

RSYNC

General syntax used for rsync:

*rsync [options] [source] [destination]*

A basic example will look something like this:

rsync -avz –progress -e "ssh -i /home/account/.ssh/id_rsa" file1 [email protected]:/home/eouser/

Output:

sending incremental file listfile1sent 135 bytes  received 35 bytes  113.33 bytes/sectotal size is 57  speedup is 0.3

Options:

  • v : verbose

  • -r : copies data recursively (be cautious, it does not copy file/folder permissions while transferring data)

  • -a : archive mode; this allows copying files recursively and it also preserves symbolic links, file permissions, user & group ownerships and timestamps

  • -z : compress data

*-h : human-readable, output numbers in a human-readable format

You have to add your private ssh key for authentication with the -e parameter.

rsync example

rsync -avz -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/<private_key>" <file/directory> [email protected]:/home/eouser/

rsync output:

sending incremental file list
<file>

sent 1,404 bytes  received 35 bytes  959.33 bytes/sec
total size is 1,680  speedup is 1.17