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1 | \versionid $Id: pscp.but,v 1.22 2002/09/11 17:30:36 jacob Exp $ |
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2 | |
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3 | \#FIXME: Need examples |
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4 | |
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5 | \C{pscp} Using PSCP to transfer files securely |
6 | |
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7 | \i{PSCP}, the PuTTY Secure Copy client, is a tool for transferring files |
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8 | securely between computers using an SSH connection. |
9 | |
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10 | If you have an SSH 2 server, you might prefer PSFTP (see \k{psftp}) |
11 | for interactive use. PSFTP does not in general work with SSH 1 |
12 | servers, however. |
13 | |
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14 | \H{pscp-starting} Starting PSCP |
15 | |
16 | PSCP is a command line application. This means that you cannot just |
17 | double-click on its icon to run it and instead you have to bring up a |
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18 | \i{console window}. With Windows 95, 98, and ME, this is called an |
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19 | \q{MS-DOS Prompt} and with Windows NT and 2000 it is called a |
20 | \q{Command Prompt}. It should be available from the Programs section |
21 | of your Start Menu. |
22 | |
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23 | To start PSCP it will need either to be on your \i{\c{PATH}} or in your |
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24 | current directory. To add the directory containing PSCP to your |
25 | \c{PATH} environment variable, type into the console window: |
26 | |
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27 | \c set PATH=C:\path\to\putty\directory;%PATH% |
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28 | |
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29 | This will only work for the lifetime of that particular console |
30 | window. To set your \c{PATH} more permanently on Windows NT, use the |
31 | Environment tab of the System Control Panel. On Windows 95, 98, and |
32 | ME, you will need to edit your \c{AUTOEXEC.BAT} to include a \c{set} |
33 | command like the one above. |
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34 | |
35 | \H{pscp-usage} PSCP Usage |
36 | |
37 | Once you've got a console window to type into, you can just type |
38 | \c{pscp} on its own to bring up a usage message. This tells you the |
39 | version of PSCP you're using, and gives you a brief summary of how to |
40 | use PSCP: |
41 | |
42 | \c Z:\owendadmin>pscp |
43 | \c PuTTY Secure Copy client |
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44 | \c Release 0.53 |
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45 | \c Usage: pscp [options] [user@]host:source target |
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46 | \c pscp [options] source [source...] [user@]host:target |
47 | \c pscp [options] -ls user@host:filespec |
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48 | \c Options: |
49 | \c -p preserve file attributes |
50 | \c -q quiet, don't show statistics |
51 | \c -r copy directories recursively |
52 | \c -v show verbose messages |
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53 | \c -load sessname Load settings from saved session |
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54 | \c -P port connect to specified port |
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55 | \c -l user connect with specified username |
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56 | \c -pw passw login with specified password |
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57 | \c -1 -2 force use of particular SSH protocol version |
58 | \c -C enable compression |
59 | \c -i key private key file for authentication |
60 | \c -batch disable all interactive prompts |
61 | \c -unsafe allow server-side wildcards (DANGEROUS) |
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62 | |
63 | (PSCP's interface is much like the Unix \c{scp} command, if you're |
64 | familiar with that.) |
65 | |
66 | \S{pscp-usage-basics} The basics |
67 | |
68 | To receive (a) file(s) from a remote server: |
69 | |
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70 | \c pscp [options] [user@]host:source target |
71 | |
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72 | So to copy the file \c{/etc/hosts} from the server \c{example.com} as |
73 | user \c{fred} to the file \c{c:\\temp\\example-hosts.txt}, you would type: |
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74 | |
75 | \c pscp fred@example.com:/etc/hosts c:\temp\example-hosts.txt |
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76 | |
77 | To send (a) file(s) to a remote server: |
78 | |
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79 | \c pscp [options] source [source...] [user@]host:target |
80 | |
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81 | So to copy the local file \c{c:\\documents\\csh-whynot.txt} to the |
82 | server \c{example.com} as user \c{fred} to the file |
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83 | \c{/tmp/csh-whynot} you would type: |
84 | |
85 | \c pscp c:\documents\csh-whynot.txt fred@example.com:/tmp/csh-whynot |
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86 | |
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87 | You can use wildcards to transfer multiple files in either |
88 | direction, like this: |
89 | |
90 | \c pscp c:\documents\*.doc fred@example.com:docfiles |
91 | \c pscp fred@example.com:source/*.c c:\source |
92 | |
93 | However, in the second case (using a wildcard for multiple remote |
94 | files) you may see a warning like this: |
95 | |
96 | \c warning: remote host tried to write to a file called 'terminal.c' |
97 | \c when we requested a file called '*.c'. |
98 | \c If this is a wildcard, consider upgrading to SSH 2 or using |
99 | \c the '-unsafe' option. Renaming of this file has been disallowed. |
100 | |
101 | This is due to a fundamental insecurity in the old-style SCP |
102 | protocol: the client sends the wildcard string (\c{*.c}) to the |
103 | server, and the server sends back a sequence of file names that |
104 | match the wildcard pattern. However, there is nothing to stop the |
105 | server sending back a \e{different} pattern and writing over one of |
106 | your other files: if you request \c{*.c}, the server might send back |
107 | the file name \c{AUTOEXEC.BAT} and install a virus for you. Since |
108 | the wildcard matching rules are decided by the server, the client |
109 | cannot reliably verify that the filenames sent back match the |
110 | pattern. |
111 | |
112 | PSCP will attempt to use the newer SFTP protocol (part of SSH 2) |
113 | where possible, which does not suffer from this security flaw. If |
114 | you are talking to an SSH 2 server which supports SFTP, you will |
115 | never see this warning. |
116 | |
117 | If you really need to use a server-side wildcard with an SSH 1 |
118 | server, you can use the \c{-unsafe} command line option with PSCP: |
119 | |
120 | \c pscp -unsafe fred@example.com:source/*.c c:\source |
121 | |
122 | This will suppress the warning message and the file transfer will |
123 | happen. However, you should be aware that by using this option you |
124 | are giving the server the ability to write to \e{any} file in the |
125 | target directory, so you should only use this option if you trust |
126 | the server administrator not to be malicious (and not to let the |
127 | server machine be cracked by malicious people). |
128 | |
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129 | \S2{pscp-usage-basics-user} \c{user} |
130 | |
131 | The login name on the remote server. If this is omitted, and \c{host} |
132 | is a PuTTY saved session, PSCP will use any username specified by that |
133 | saved session. Otherwise, PSCP will attempt to use the local Windows |
134 | username. |
135 | |
136 | \S2{pscp-usage-basics-host} \c{host} |
137 | |
138 | The name of the remote server, or the name of an existing PuTTY saved |
139 | session. In the latter case, the session's settings for hostname, port |
140 | number, cipher type and username will be used. |
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141 | |
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142 | \S2{pscp-usage-basics-source} \c{source} |
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143 | |
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144 | One or more source files. \i{Wildcards} are allowed. The syntax of |
145 | wildcards depends on the system to which they apply, so if you are |
146 | copying \e{from} a Windows system \e{to} a UNIX system, you should use |
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147 | Windows wildcard syntax (e.g. \c{*.*}), but if you are copying \e{from} |
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148 | a UNIX system \e{to} a Windows system, you would use the wildcard |
149 | syntax allowed by your UNIX shell (e.g. \c{*}). |
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150 | |
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151 | If the source is a remote server and you do not specify a full |
152 | pathname (in UNIX, a pathname beginning with a \c{/} (slash) |
153 | character), what you specify as a source will be interpreted relative |
154 | to your home directory on the remote server. |
155 | |
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156 | \S2{pscp-usage-basics-target} \c{target} |
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157 | |
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158 | The filename or directory to put the file(s). When copying from a |
159 | remote server to a local host, you may wish simply to place the |
160 | file(s) in the current directory. To do this, you should specify a |
161 | target of \c{.}. For example: |
162 | |
163 | \c pscp fred@example.com:/home/tom/.emacs . |
164 | |
165 | ...would copy \c{/home/tom/.emacs} on the remote server to the current |
166 | directory. |
167 | |
168 | As with the \c{source} parameter, if the target is on a remote server |
169 | and is not a full path name, it is interpreted relative to your home |
170 | directory on the remote server. |
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171 | |
172 | \S{pscp-usage-options} Options |
173 | |
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174 | PSCP accepts all the general command line options supported by the |
175 | PuTTY tools, except the ones which make no sense in a file transfer |
176 | utility. See \k{using-general-opts} for a description of these |
177 | options. (The ones not supported by PSCP are clearly marked.) |
178 | |
179 | PSCP also supports some of its own options. The following sections |
180 | describe PSCP's specific command-line options. |
181 | |
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182 | These are the command line options that PSCP accepts. |
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183 | |
184 | \S2{pscp-usage-options-p}\c{-p} preserve file attributes |
185 | |
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186 | By default, files copied with PSCP are \i{timestamp}ed with the date and |
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187 | time they were copied. The \c{-p} option preserves the original |
188 | timestamp on copied files. |
189 | |
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190 | \S2{pscp-usage-options-q}\c{-q} quiet, don't show \i{statistics} |
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191 | |
192 | By default, PSCP displays a meter displaying the progress of the |
193 | current transfer: |
194 | |
195 | \c mibs.tar | 168 kB | 84.0 kB/s | ETA: 00:00:13 | 13% |
196 | |
197 | The fields in this display are (from left to right), filename, size |
198 | (in kilobytes) of file transferred so far, estimate of how fast the |
199 | file is being transferred (in kilobytes per second), estimated time |
200 | that the transfer will be complete, and percentage of the file so far |
201 | transferred. The \c{-q} option to PSCP suppresses the printing of |
202 | these statistics. |
203 | |
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204 | \S2{pscp-usage-options-r}\c{-r} copies directories \i{recursive}ly |
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205 | |
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206 | By default, PSCP will only copy files. Any directories you specify to |
207 | copy will be skipped, as will their contents. The \c{-r} option tells |
208 | PSCP to descend into any directories you specify, and to copy them and |
209 | their contents. This allows you to use PSCP to transfer whole |
210 | directory structures between machines. |
211 | |
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212 | \S2{pscp-usage-options-batch}\c{-batch} avoid interactive prompts |
213 | |
214 | If you use the \c{-batch} option, PSCP will never give an |
215 | interactive prompt while establishing the connection. If the |
216 | server's host key is invalid, for example (see \k{gs-hostkey}), then |
217 | the connection will simply be abandoned instead of asking you what |
218 | to do next. |
219 | |
220 | This may help PSCP's behaviour when it is used in automated |
221 | scripts: using \c{-batch}, if something goes wrong at connection |
222 | time, the batch job will fail rather than hang. |
223 | |
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224 | \S{pscp-retval} Return value |
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225 | |
226 | PSCP returns an \cw{ERRORLEVEL} of zero (success) only if the files |
227 | were correctly transferred. You can test for this in a batch file, |
228 | using code such as this: |
229 | |
230 | \c pscp file*.* user@hostname: |
231 | \c if errorlevel 1 echo There was an error |
232 | |
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233 | \S{pscp-pubkey} Using public key authentication with PSCP |
234 | |
235 | Like PuTTY, PSCP can authenticate using a public key instead of a |
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236 | password. There are three ways you can do this. |
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237 | |
238 | Firstly, PSCP can use PuTTY saved sessions in place of hostnames |
239 | (see \k{pscp-usage-basics-host}). So you would do this: |
240 | |
241 | \b Run PuTTY, and create a PuTTY saved session (see |
242 | \k{config-saving}) which specifies your private key file (see |
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243 | \k{config-ssh-privkey}). You will probably also want to specify a |
244 | username to log in as (see \k{config-username}). |
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245 | |
246 | \b In PSCP, you can now use the name of the session instead of a |
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247 | hostname: type \c{pscp sessionname:file localfile}, where |
248 | \c{sessionname} is replaced by the name of your saved session. |
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249 | |
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250 | Secondly, you can supply the name of a private key file on the command |
251 | line, with the \c{-i} option. See \k{using-cmdline-identity} for more |
252 | information. |
253 | |
254 | Thirdly, PSCP will attempt to authenticate using Pageant if Pageant |
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255 | is running (see \k{pageant}). So you would do this: |
256 | |
257 | \b Ensure Pageant is running, and has your private key stored in it. |
258 | |
259 | \b Specify a user and host name to PSCP as normal. PSCP will |
260 | automatically detect Pageant and try to use the keys within it. |
261 | |
262 | For more general information on public-key authentication, see |
263 | \k{pubkey}. |
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264 | |
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265 | \H{pscp-ixplorer} \i{Secure iXplorer} |
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266 | |
267 | Lars Gunnarson has written a graphical interface for PSCP. You can |
268 | get it from his web site, at |
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269 | \W{http://www.i-tree.org/}{www.i-tree.org}. |