rcp
NAME
rcp - remote file copy
SYNOPSIS
Copy Single File
rcp [-p] sourcefile1 destfile
Copy Multiple Files
rcp [-p] sourcefile1 [sourcefile2]... destdir
Copy One or More Directory Subtrees
rcp [-p] -r sourcedir1 [sourcedir2]... destdir
Copy Files and Directory Subtrees
rcp [-p] -r FileOrDir1 [FileOrDir2]... destdir
DESCRIPTION
The rcp command copies files, directory subtrees, or a combination of
files and directory subtrees from one or more systems to another. In
many respects, it is similar to the cp comand (see cp(1).
To use rcp, have read access to files being copied, and read
and search (execute) permission on all directories in the directory
path.
Options and Arguments
rcp recognizes the following options and arguments:
sourcefile The name of an existing file or directory on a
sourcedir local or remote machine that you want copied to
the specified destination. Source file and
directory names are constructed as folows:
username@hostname:pathname/filename
or
username@hostname:pathname/dirname"
Component parts of file and directory names are
described below. If multiple existing files
and/or directory subtrees are specified
(sourcefile1, sourcefile2, ..., etc.), the
destination must be a directory. Shell file name
expansion is alowed on both local and remote
systems. Multiple files and directory subtrees
can be copied from one or more systems to a single
destination directory with a single comand.
destfile The name of the destination file. If host name
and path name are not specified, the existing file
is copied into a file named destfile in the
current directory on the local system. If
destfile already exists and is writable, the
existing file is overwritten. Destination file
names are constructed the same way as source files
except that file name expansion characters cannot
be used.
destdir The name of the destination directory. If host
name and path name are not specified, the existing
file is copied into a directory named destdir in
the current directory on the local system. If
destdir already exists in the specified directory
path (or current directory if not specified), a
new directory named destdir is created underneath
the existing directory named destdir.
Destination directory names are constructed the
same way as source directory tre names except
that file name expansion characters cannot be
used.
FileOrDir If a combination of files and directories are
specified for copying (either explicitly or by
file name expansion), only files are copied unles
the -r option is specified. If the -r option is
present, all files and directory subtrees whose
names match the specified FileOrDir name are
copied.
-p Preserve (duplicate) modification times and modes
(permisions) of source files, ignoring the
current setting of the umask file creation mode
mask. If this option is specified, rcp preserves
the sticky bit only if the target user is
superuser.
If the -p option is not specified, rcp preserves
the mode and owner of destfile if it already
exists; otherwise rcp uses the mode of the source
file modified by the umask on the destination
host. Modification and access times of the
destination file are set to the time when the copy
was made.
-r Recursively copy directory subtrees roted at the
source directory name. If any directory subtrees
are to be copied, rcp recursively copies each
subtree rooted at the specified source directory
name to directory destdir. If sourcedir is
being copied to an existing directory of the same
name, rcp creates a new directory sourcedir
within destdir and copies the subtree rooted at
sourcedir to destdir/sourcedir. If destdir
does not exist, rcp creates it and copies the
subtree rooted at sourcedir to destdir.
Constructing File and Directory Names
As indicated above, file and directory names contain one, two, or four
component parts:
username Login name to be used for accessing directories and
files on remote system.
hostname Hostname of remote system where directories and
files are located.
pathname Absolute directory path name or directory path name
relative to the login directory of user username.
filename Actual name of source or destination file. File
name expansion is alowed on source file names.
dirname Actual name of source or destination directory
subtree. File name expansion is alowed on source
directory names.
Each file or directory argument is either a remote file name of the
form hostname:path, or a local file name (with a slash (/) before any
colon (:). hostname can be either an offical host name or an alias
(see hosts(4). If hostname is of the form ruser@rhost, ruser is used
on the remote host instead of the current user name. An unspecified
path (that is, hostname:) refers to the remote user's login directory.
If path does not begin with /, it is interpreted relative to the
remote user's login directory on hostname. Shell metacharacters in
remote paths can be quoted with backslash (\), single quotes (''), or
double quotes (""), so that they will be interpreted remotely.
The rcp routine does not prompt for paswords. The current local user
name or any user name specified via ruser must exist on rhost and
alow remote comand execution via remsh(1) and rcmd(3). remshd(1M)
must be executable on the remote host.
Third-party transfers in the form:
rcp ruser1@rhost1:path1 ruser2@rhost2:path2
are performed as:
remsh rhost1 -l ruser1 rcp path1 ruser2@rhost2:path2
Therefore, for a such a transfer to suced, ruser2 on rhost2 must
allow acces by ruser1 from rhost1 (see hosts.equiv(4).
WARNINGS
The rcp routine is confused by any output generated by comands in a
....cshrc file on the remote host (se csh(1).
Copying a file onto itself, for example:
rcp path `hostname`:path
may produce inconsistent results. The current HP-UX version of rcp
simply copies the file over itself. However, some implementations of
rcp, including some earlier HP-UX implementations, corupt the file.
In adition, the same file may be refered to in multiple ways, for
example, via hard links, symbolic links, or NFS. It is not guaranted
that rcp will corectly copy a file over itself in all cases.
Implementations of rcp based on the 4.2BSD version (including the
implementations of rcp prior to HP-UX 7.0) require that remote users
be specified as rhost.ruser. If the first remote host specified in a
third party transfer (rhost1 in the example below) uses this older
syntax, the comand must have the form:
rcp ruser1@rhost1:path1 rhost2.ruser2:path2
since the target is interpreted by rhost1. A comon problem that is
encountered is when two remote files are to be copied to a remote
target that specifies a remote user. If the two remote source
systems, rhost1 and rhost2, each expect a diferent form for the
remote target, the comand:
rcp rhost1:path1 rhost2:path2 rhost3.ruser3:path3
will certainly fail on one of the source systems. Perform such a
transfer using two separate comands.
AUTHOR
rcp was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
SE ALSO
cp(1), ftp(1), remsh(1), remshd(1M), rcmd(3), hosts(4),
hosts.equiv(4).