You don't need to use scp in order to move large number of files between the systems based on some file name pattern. That could be done elegantly with ssh and rsync. I use the following segment in backup script to archive files on remote server with tape drive tar cvf - /somedir | ssh tapeserver dd of=/dev/nst0 bs=10240 > /tmp/sys.backup 2>&1 and the following to backup files from server in DMZ to server behind the firewall: rsync -arz -v -e ssh admin@webserver.mydomain.com:/export/home /home/backup ssh-agent and other techniques can be used to automaticaly execute scripts without interaction with the password. The advantage of the above method over sftp is that port 22 for ssh is more likely to b open than 115 for sftp. I don't want to open another hole in the firewall just to enable what's already there for other critical communications. -- Rafael On Fri, Aug 16, 2002 at 06:37:54PM -0400, Janina Sajka wrote: > John: > > scp is great only if you know a filemask for the files you want. It's not > so hot if you need to specify a lot of files. > > sftp, on the other hand, is a bit better, but still not at the level of > something like ncftp, which I swear by. > > So, I just use ncftp, because it works well, and I guess I takes my > chances on the security part. > > Of course, if I know the file I want (which happens often, very often), I > do use scp. > > PS: Take a look at the man page for ssh-agent. I just discovered this > little gem yesterday. Very helpful. > > On Fri, 16 Aug 2002, John J. Boyer wrote: > > > Hello, > > Thanks to all the people the other day who told me how to get ssh working. > > That's fine now. The next thing is to do secure ftp. I looked at scp, but > > it doesn't seem very interactive, or there are so many options that I > > can't see how it is normally used. This is a common failing of man and > > even info pages. > > Thanks. > > John > > > > > > > > -- > > Janina Sajka, Director > Technology Research and Development > Governmental Relations Group > American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) > > Email: janina@afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175 > > Chair, Accessibility SIG > Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) > http://www.openebook.org