Re: scp non-overwrite option

[bob@proulx.com (Bob Proulx)]

Bhasker C V wrote:
>   I was trying to scp a large directory from server to my box (server on
> FC and my desktop on etch). I use scp -r option to copy all the files.
> But when it happens that the scp fails somewhere, i cannot ask it to
> continue by omitting the ones it has already copied.

This is a perfect application for 'rsync'.

  rsync -av /from/here/dir example.com:/to/there/

The rsync program will only copy what needs to be copied.  This means
it can be interrupted and restarted and will quite efficiently
complete the copy without transmitting the previously copied data.

> For example in the standard cp command, i can give a '-i' option to
> interactively ask if the command is going to overwrite a file
> already present.

Grr...  That is a blunt and coarse use of 'cp -i'.  You would have to
answer 'n'o to a lot of questions.  Or use 'yes n | cp -i' and that
seems worse.  Of course 'cp -u' will avoid copying the previously
copied files too but better to use rsync here.

> Why is this option not present in scp ?

Because it is not needed because it exists in other commands.  scp is
simply an rcp lookalike command.

Bob