[Techtalk] Securely transferring files using scripts

[Hamster]

> Is there a way to securely transfer files using a script?  I'd like to 
> write a backup script on my mail server to tar the messages and then send 
> them to a backup server.  I'd like to use scp or something but don't want 
> to pass a password.  Or, if a password needs to be used, is there a way to 
> setup scp or something so that it would work with the shell being 
> /dev/null?

Jen,

I cant answer your question directly, but I do know that with ssh at least, you can set it up so that you can ssh into another box without needing to provide the password. You do this by copying the requisite keys onto the other machine (there is doco available on how to exactly do this). It then just uses the key pairs as the authentication method.

I cant help but wondering if you might also be able to do this with scp as well?
I'm fairly sure you can, but can say so with any certainty.

Hamster