Duke Statistics -- Statistical Computing

Using Scp to transfer files

The following examples should illustrate how to use scp to easily transfer files to and from your Duke Statistics account, depending on whether you are:

logged onto a remote unix host.
- To copy myfile from your account on remote to your home directory at Duke Statistics
```
remote% scp myfile isdsmachine:
```
- To copy myfile from remote to the dir1 subdirectory of your Duke Statistics account
```
remote% scp myfile isdsmachine:dir1
```
- To copy myfile from your Duke Statistics account to your home directory on remote
```
remote% scp isdsmachine:myfile .
```
- To recursively copy mydir from your Duke Statistics home directory to your account on remote
```
remote% scp -r isdsmachine:mydir .
```
logged onto an Duke Statistics machine.
- To copy myfile from your Duke Statistics home directory to your account on remote
```
isdsmachine% scp myfile remote:
```
- To recursively copy mydir from your Duke Statistics home directory to your account on remote
```
isdsmachine% scp -r mydir remote:
```
- To copy myfile from your account on remote to your Duke Statistics home directory
```
isdsmachine% scp remote:myfile . 
```

For a complete list of all the options for scp, check out the online man page.

Some caveats while using scp:

If your userid (login) is different between your remote and Duke Statistics accounts, you need to use the userid@machine syntax. For example, if your Duke Statistics userid is "jimbo" but your remote userid is "jtkirk":
```
remote% scp myfile jimbo@isdsmachine:

remote% scp jimbo@isdsmachine:myfile .

isdsmachine% scp myfile jtkirk@remote:

isdsmachine% scp jtkirk@remote:myfile .
```
Wildcard characters need to be "escaped" when included in the non-local portion of the scp command.
If you want to transfer all of the files on a remote machine that start with the letter x, you need to escape the "*".
```
isdsmachine% scp remote:x\* .
```
However, if you want to copy all of the local files starting with the letter x, you need only do the following,
```
isdsmachine% scp x* remote:
```