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Transfer large files/directories with no overhead over the network

Terminal - Transfer large files/directories with no overhead over the network
ssh user@host "cd targetdir; tar cfp - *" | dd of=file.tar
2009-03-18 07:43:22
User: bwoodacre
Functions: dd ssh
6
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Transfer large files/directories with no overhead over the network

This invokes tar on the remote machine and pipes the resulting tarfile over the network using ssh and is saved on the local machine. This is useful for making a one-off backup of a directory tree with zero storage overhead on the source. Variations on this include using compression on the source by using 'tar cfvp' or compression at the destination via

ssh user@host "cd dir; tar cfp - *" | gzip - > file.tar.gz
Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Alternatives

There are 3 alternatives - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives

Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

the p switch to tar is not necessary in creation ("c") mode.

Also, dd is not necessary, simply redirecting with "> file.tar" is enough.

Comment by cran 217 weeks and 4 days ago

remember that * won't capture .dotfiles and .dotdirs/

Comment by linuxrawkstar 217 weeks and 4 days ago

Why not gzip before downloading?

ssh user@host 'cd dir; tar zcf - .' > file.tgz
Comment by isaacs 216 weeks and 2 days ago

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