FTP / SCP / rsync — Transfer Cheat Sheet

FTP / SFTP

File Transfer Protocol

Command	Description
Connection
ftp <host>	Open FTP session to host
sftp user@host	Secure FTP over SSH
sftp -P 2222 user@host	SFTP on non-default port
sftp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@host	SFTP with identity file
Interactive — upload
put /local/file.tar /remote/	Upload single file
mput *.tar.gz	Upload multiple files (glob)
put -r /local/dir /remote/dir	Upload directory (sftp only)
Interactive — download
get /remote/file.tar /local/	Download single file
mget *.log	Download multiple files (glob)
get -r /remote/dir /local/dir	Download directory (sftp only)
Navigation / misc
ls / lls	List remote / local directory
cd /remote/path / lcd /local	Change remote / local directory
pwd / lpwd	Print remote / local working dir
bye / quit	Close session
Batch / non-interactive
sftp user@host <<EOF put /backup/db.tar.gz /drop/ bye EOF	Here-doc batch transfer in shell script
sftp -b /tmp/batch.txt user@host	Execute commands from batch file

Note: Plain FTP sends credentials in cleartext — use SFTP or SCP in production. Disable anonymous FTP on backup servers.

SCP

Secure Copy Protocol

Command	Description
Local → Remote
scp file.tar user@host:/backup/	Copy single file to remote
scp -r /local/dir user@host:/backup/	Copy directory recursively
scp -P 2222 file.tar user@host:/tmp/	Non-default SSH port
scp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa file.tar user@host:/tmp/	Specify identity file
scp -C file.tar user@host:/backup/	Enable compression in transit
scp -l 8192 big.tar user@host:/bkp/	Limit bandwidth (Kbit/s)
Remote → Local
scp user@host:/backup/file.tar /local/	Pull single file from remote
scp -r user@host:/backup/dir /local/	Pull directory from remote
Remote → Remote
scp user@src:/data/file.tar user@dst:/data/	Copy between two remote hosts
Useful combos
scp -rp /local/dir user@host:/dst/	Preserve timestamps & permissions
scp -q file.tar user@host:/bkp/	Quiet mode — suppress progress
scp -v file.tar user@host:/bkp/	Verbose — useful for debugging

Note: SCP lacks resume capability. For large transfers or unreliable links use rsync over SSH instead. On newer OpenSSH (>= 9.0) scp uses the SFTP protocol internally.

rsync

Remote Sync

Command	Description
Core flags
-a (--archive)	Recursive + preserve perms, times, symlinks, owner, group
-z (--compress)	Compress data in transit
-v (--verbose)	Show files being transferred
-P	--partial + --progress (resume + show progress)
-n (--dry-run)	Simulate — no changes written
--delete	Delete files on dst not present on src
--checksum	Compare by checksum, not mtime/size
--bwlimit=5000	Limit bandwidth (KBytes/s)
Local → Remote (SSH)
rsync -avz /src/ user@host:/dst/	Sync directory to remote (trailing / = contents only)
rsync -avzP /src/ user@host:/dst/	With progress & resume support
rsync -avz --delete /src/ user@host:/dst/	Mirror — removes files deleted on src
rsync -avz -e "ssh -p 2222" /src/ user@host:/dst/	Non-default SSH port
rsync -avz -e "ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_rsa" /src/ user@host:/dst/	Custom identity file
Remote → Local
rsync -avz user@host:/src/ /local/dst/	Pull remote directory locally
rsync -avzP user@host:/src/big.tar /local/	Pull single file with resume
Local → Local
rsync -av /mnt/data/ /mnt/backup/	Local disk sync
Filtering
rsync -av --exclude='*.log' /src/ user@host:/dst/	Exclude by pattern
rsync -av --exclude-from=/tmp/excl.txt /src/ user@host:/dst/	Exclude list from file
rsync -av --include='.tar.gz' --exclude='' /src/ user@host:/dst/	Include only .tar.gz files
Backup / AIX considerations
rsync -avz --numeric-ids /src/ user@host:/dst/	Preserve UID/GID numerically (cross-host)
rsync -avz --log-file=/var/log/rsync.log /src/ user@host:/dst/	Write transfer log
rsync -avzn /src/ user@host:/dst/ 2>&1 \| tee /tmp/dryrun.out	Dry-run with captured output for review

Trailing slash on source matters: /src/ syncs contents into /dst/; /src (no slash) creates /dst/src/. On AIX, ensure rsync is installed via toolbox/rpm and SSH key auth is in place for scripted jobs.