How to filter files when using scp to copy dir recursively?

Question

I need to copy all the .class files from server to local with all dir reserved. e.g. server:/usr/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders/me.class will be /usr/project/backup/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders/me.class the problem is, there are many other useless files such as .svn-base files that i don't want. how can i filter them so I only scp .class files?

Answer 1

I'd probably recommend using something like rsync for this due to its include and exclude flags, e.g:-

rsync -rav -e ssh --include '*/' --include='*.class' --exclude='*' \
server:/usr/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders/ \ 
/usr/project/backup/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders/

Some other useful flags:

• -r for recursive
• -a for archive (mostly all files)
• -v for verbose output
• -e to specify ssh instead of the default (which should be ssh, actually)

Answer 2

To exclude dotfiles in base directory:

scp -r [!.]* server:/path/to/something

[!.]* is a shell glob that expands to all files in working directory not starting with a dot.

Answer 3

There is no feature in scp to filter files. For "advanced" stuff like this, I recommend using rsync:

rsync -av --exclude '*.svn' user@server:/my/dir .

(this line copy rsync from distant folder to current one)

Recent versions of rsync tunnel over an ssh connection automatically by default.

Answer 4

Since you can scp you should be ok to ssh,
either script the following or login and execute...

# After reaching the server of interest
cd /usr/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders
tar cfj pack.tar.bz2 $(find . -type f -name *.class)

return back (logout) to local server and scp,

# from the local machine
cd /usr/project/backup/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders
scp you@server:/usr/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders/pack.tar.bz2 .
tar xfj pack.tar.bz2

---

If you find the $(find ...) is too long for your tar change to,

find . -type f -name *.class | xargs tar cfj pack.tar.bz2

---

Finally, since you are keeping it in /usr/project/backup/,
why bother extraction? Just keep the tar.bz2, with maybe a date+time stamp.

Answer 5

Below command for files.

scp `find . -maxdepth 1 -name "*.log" \! -name "hs_err_pid2801.log" -type f` root@IP:/tmp/test/

1. IP will be destination server IP address.
2. -name "*.log" for include files.
3. \! -name "hs_err_pid2801.log" for exclude files.
4. . is current working dir.
5. -type f for file type.

Below command for directory.

scp -r `find . -maxdepth 1 -name "lo*" \! -name "localhost" -type d` root@IP:/tmp/test/

you can customize above command as per your requirement.

Answer 6

With ssh key based authentication enabled, the following script would work.

for x in `ssh user@remotehost 'find /usr/some -type f -name *.class'`; do y=$(echo $x|sed 's/.[^/]*$//'|sed "s/^\/usr//"); mkdir -p /usr/project/backup$y; scp $(echo 'user@remotehost:'$x) /usr/project/backup$y/; done

Answer 7

If you indeed wanna use scp, there's a indirect way.Say we want to copy all .jpg file under local folder '/src' to folder '/dst' in remote server 10.1.1.2:

#make a clean temp folder
mkdir /tmp/ttt
#copy all .jpg file and retain folder structure as-is
find /src -type f -name *.jpg -exec cp --parents \{\} /tmp/ttt \;
#copy to remote target folder as-is and retain original time attributes
scp -rp /tmp/ttt/* 10.1.1.2:/dst
#if copy ok, remove temp folder
rm -rf /tmp/ttt

Answer 8

scp -i /home/<user>/.ssh/id_rsa -o "StrictHostKeyChecking=no" -rp /source/directory/path/[!.]* <target_user>@<target_system:/destination/directory/path

Answer 9

1. Copy your source folder to somedir:

   cp -r srcdir somedir

2. Remove all unneeded files:

   find somedir -name '.svn' -exec rm -rf {} \+

3. launch scp from somedir