UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I am using scp to copy a certain directory over the network. This folder contain some files that I am not interested in. My question is; is it possible to copy files of certain extension only, keeping the same directory hierarchy as it is (that is sub-folders)?

Thanks

Code:

find path/to/dir -name '*.ext' |
        tar -cf - |
        ssh username@host tar -C /path/to/dest -tf -

The -tf just has the server print files and paths. Replace it with -xf once you've tested to make sure it's getting the right files and paths.

Thanks,

I haven't tried it, and I can't since I cannot create a tar file on the destination folder. I do not have a permission to create (or delete files).
So how can the script be tweaked?

If you don't have permission to create or delete files, you're going to have a heck of a time copying anything by any means.

The archive never gets put on disk anywhere. It processes it as a stream without needing to keep a huge file around. tar's good at that, because tapes had to operate that way.

In effect it's creating a big list of files and their contents, all in a row, and sending it directly to stdout as it goes -- no storage needed.
And on the client side, it just reads directly from stdin, processing as it goes, without needing to store anything on disk except the files encoded in it.

For the first part of the script

Code:

find path/to/dir -name '*.ext' |

Does it mean I should use `find' while logged into the distant machine? If so, then does ssh means I should login to my machine (the one I am physically at) to copy the files to it?

find | tar -cf - needs to run on the source machine. tar -xf - runs on the destination machine.

The order can be reversed with a little work.

Code:

ssh username@host find /remote/source -name "'*.ext'" '|' xargs tar -cf - |
        tar -C /local/dest -tf -

Note the extra single quotes around *.ext and |, those are necessary to get that bit running on the remote server.

Here is what I did:

Code:

ssh -Y user@server find /path/as/on/the/distant/machine/ -name "'*.ext'" '|' xargs tar -cf - | tar -C ~/store_here/

And here is the output:

Code:

tar: You must specify one of the `-Acdtrux' or `--test-label'  options

(.ext was .ps) And I was not prompted to login!