Copy a folder tree through ssh using compression (no temporary files)

ssh <host> 'tar -cz /<folder>/<subfolder>' | tar -xvz

This command will copy a folder tree (keeping the parent folders) through ssh. It will: - compress the data - stream the compressed data through ssh - decompress the data on the local folder This command will take no additional space on the host machine (no need to create compressed tar files, transfer it and then delete it on the host). There is some situations (like mirroring a remote machine) where you simply cant wait for a huge time taking scp command or cant compress the data to a tarball on the host because of file system space limitation, so this command can do the job quite well. This command performs very well mainly when a lot of data is involved in the process. If you copying a low amount of data, use scp instead (easier to type)

Sample Output

#ssh hula2 'tar -cz /export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-*' | tar -xzv
export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-01
export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-02
export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-03
export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-04
export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-05
export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-06
export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-07
export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-08
export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-09

#ls -R ~/export
/home/user/export:
logs

/home/user/export/logs:
account-collector

/home/user/export/logs/account-collector:
server.log.2009-11-01  server.log.2009-11-03  server.log.2009-11-05  server.log.2009-11-07  server.log.2009-11-09
server.log.2009-11-02  server.log.2009-11-04  server.log.2009-11-06  server.log.2009-11-08

By: polaco

2009-11-10 20:06:47

ssh tar ssh copy tar compression

Submit An Alternative

What Others Think

In case you want to use fewer CPU cycles, you could just drop the gzip compression of tar (which is sometimes the bottleneck depending on the data), or use a different cipher in ssh: ssh <host> -C blowfish-cbc 'tar -cz /<folder>/<subfolder>' | tar -xvz to profile the different ssh ciphers on your machine, run this command: openssl speed aes rc4 blowfish At least on debian/ubuntu, the openssl command comes with the 'openssl' package, which is probably available by default on most systems.

bwoodacre · 777 weeks and 4 days ago

Nice comment, thx for the additions

polaco · 777 weeks and 3 days ago

You can let ssh do the compression/decompression: ssh -C HOST 'tar -c PATH' | tar -xv The advantage is that you can control the compression level, like: ssh -C -o CompressionLevel=9 HOST 'tar -c PATH' | tar -xv

rbossy · 777 weeks and 2 days ago

Did some testes with the 3 versions of the commands (copying large log files) time scp hula2:/export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-* . server.log.2009-11-01 100% 43MB 8.5MB/s 00:05 server.log.2009-11-02 100% 44MB 10.9MB/s 00:04 server.log.2009-11-03 100% 21MB 10.5MB/s 00:02 server.log.2009-11-04 100% 2302KB 2.3MB/s 00:00 server.log.2009-11-05 100% 785MB 9.7MB/s 01:21 server.log.2009-11-06 100% 50MB 8.3MB/s 00:06 server.log.2009-11-07 100% 21MB 10.4MB/s 00:02 server.log.2009-11-08 100% 20MB 10.2MB/s 00:02 server.log.2009-11-09 100% 5171KB 5.1MB/s 00:01 server.log.2009-11-10 100% 343MB 8.8MB/s 00:39 server.log.2009-11-11 100% 109MB 9.1MB/s 00:12 server.log.2009-11-12 100% 109MB 8.4MB/s 00:13 real 2m46.731s user 0m25.078s sys 0m10.113s time ssh hula2 'tar -cz /export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-*' | tar -xvz tar: Removing leading `/' from member names export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-01 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-02 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-03 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-04 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-05 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-06 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-07 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-08 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-09 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-10 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-11 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-12 real 1m8.055s user 0m7.232s sys 0m5.428s time ssh -C hula2 'tar -c /export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-*' | tar -xv tar: Removing leading `/' from member names export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-01 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-02 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-03 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-04 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-05 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-06 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-07 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-08 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-09 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-10 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-11 export/logs/account-collector/server.log.2009-11-12 real 1m28.785s user 0m13.613s sys 0m6.332s The ssh -C option is a good alternative but it probably compresses by packet, achieving a lower compression when compared to compression by file. Still the -C flag can be very useful. Thx for the additions guys.

polaco · 777 weeks and 2 days ago

rahimhh21 · 109 weeks and 2 days ago

Perfecthomepugs · 100 weeks and 5 days ago

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projack · 12 weeks and 3 days ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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