[Techtalk] Day 3, no Windows

[Carlo Hamalainen]

Hi,

On 15 Aug 2002, Scott wrote:
> NCFTP has become my best friend (thanks Dave).  I am writing scripts to
> automate moving files from the old servers to the new ones.

I also recommend the rsync program that somebody mentioned on this list a
few days ago. I've just discovered it myself (had always thought it was a
program for maintaining big FTP sites). I didn't know it was a one-liner!

For the benefit of everyone, I'll explain my little scripts and situation
with rsync:

I have three computers that I work off (I'll call them home, office, and
server). I have a directory called 'work' that I want to maintain across
all machines, and can't use removable media (only floppy in the office
computer), so dialup from home is the only option.

With rsync, I can keep a directory perfectly up-to-date. To upload files
from home or office to server, I use:

rsync -avz -e ssh work server:

And to pull the latest directory down, I do

rsync -avz -e ssh server:work .

So easy! I should also add a --delete option, to remove old files that
disappear from the latest copy.

And the best bit is that the uploads/downloads only move files that have
changed, so I can even mirror my girlfriend's work directory (over 100Mb)
from a 56K dialup, since only a few Mb may change per day. And because it
compresses the stuff while transferring, the total time is even less!

So good!

Heaps of thanks to whoever mentioned this on the list!

-- Carlo