| 1 | \versionid $Id: pscp.but,v 1.17 2001/09/24 22:00:46 simon Exp $ |
| 2 | |
| 3 | \#FIXME: Need examples |
| 4 | |
| 5 | \C{pscp} Using PSCP to transfer files securely |
| 6 | |
| 7 | \i{PSCP}, the PuTTY Secure Copy client, is a tool for transferring files |
| 8 | securely between computers using an SSH connection. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | \H{pscp-starting} Starting PSCP |
| 11 | |
| 12 | PSCP is a command line application. This means that you cannot just |
| 13 | double-click on its icon to run it and instead you have to bring up a |
| 14 | \i{console window}. With Windows 95, 98, and ME, this is called an |
| 15 | \q{MS-DOS Prompt} and with Windows NT and 2000 it is called a |
| 16 | \q{Command Prompt}. It should be available from the Programs section |
| 17 | of your Start Menu. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | To start PSCP it will need either to be on your \i{\c{PATH}} or in your |
| 20 | current directory. To add the directory containing PSCP to your |
| 21 | \c{PATH} environment variable, type into the console window: |
| 22 | |
| 23 | \c set PATH=C:\path\to\putty\directory;%PATH% |
| 24 | |
| 25 | This will only work for the lifetime of that particular console |
| 26 | window. To set your \c{PATH} more permanently on Windows NT, use the |
| 27 | Environment tab of the System Control Panel. On Windows 95, 98, and |
| 28 | ME, you will need to edit your \c{AUTOEXEC.BAT} to include a \c{set} |
| 29 | command like the one above. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | \H{pscp-usage} PSCP Usage |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Once you've got a console window to type into, you can just type |
| 34 | \c{pscp} on its own to bring up a usage message. This tells you the |
| 35 | version of PSCP you're using, and gives you a brief summary of how to |
| 36 | use PSCP: |
| 37 | |
| 38 | \c Z:\owendadmin>pscp |
| 39 | \c PuTTY Secure Copy client |
| 40 | \c Release 0.50 |
| 41 | \c Usage: pscp [options] [user@]host:source target |
| 42 | \c pscp [options] source [source...] [user@]host:target |
| 43 | \c pscp [options] -ls user@host:filespec |
| 44 | \c Options: |
| 45 | \c -p preserve file attributes |
| 46 | \c -q quiet, don't show statistics |
| 47 | \c -r copy directories recursively |
| 48 | \c -v show verbose messages |
| 49 | \c -P port connect to specified port |
| 50 | \c -pw passw login with specified password |
| 51 | |
| 52 | (PSCP's interface is much like the Unix \c{scp} command, if you're |
| 53 | familiar with that.) |
| 54 | |
| 55 | \S{pscp-usage-basics} The basics |
| 56 | |
| 57 | To receive (a) file(s) from a remote server: |
| 58 | |
| 59 | \c pscp [options] [user@]host:source target |
| 60 | |
| 61 | So to copy the file \c{/etc/hosts} from the server \c{example.com} as |
| 62 | user \c{fred} to the file \c{c:\\temp\\example-hosts.txt}, you would type: |
| 63 | |
| 64 | \c pscp fred@example.com:/etc/hosts c:\temp\example-hosts.txt |
| 65 | |
| 66 | To send (a) file(s) to a remote server: |
| 67 | |
| 68 | \c pscp [options] source [source...] [user@]host:target |
| 69 | |
| 70 | So to copy the local file \c{c:\\documents\\csh-whynot.txt} to the |
| 71 | server \c{example.com} as user \c{fred} to the file |
| 72 | \c{/tmp/csh-whynot} you would type: |
| 73 | |
| 74 | \c pscp c:\documents\csh-whynot.txt fred@example.com:/tmp/csh-whynot |
| 75 | |
| 76 | You can use wildcards to transfer multiple files in either |
| 77 | direction, like this: |
| 78 | |
| 79 | \c pscp c:\documents\*.doc fred@example.com:docfiles |
| 80 | \c pscp fred@example.com:source/*.c c:\source |
| 81 | |
| 82 | However, in the second case (using a wildcard for multiple remote |
| 83 | files) you may see a warning like this: |
| 84 | |
| 85 | \c warning: remote host tried to write to a file called 'terminal.c' |
| 86 | \c when we requested a file called '*.c'. |
| 87 | \c If this is a wildcard, consider upgrading to SSH 2 or using |
| 88 | \c the '-unsafe' option. Renaming of this file has been disallowed. |
| 89 | |
| 90 | This is due to a fundamental insecurity in the old-style SCP |
| 91 | protocol: the client sends the wildcard string (\c{*.c}) to the |
| 92 | server, and the server sends back a sequence of file names that |
| 93 | match the wildcard pattern. However, there is nothing to stop the |
| 94 | server sending back a \e{different} pattern and writing over one of |
| 95 | your other files: if you request \c{*.c}, the server might send back |
| 96 | the file name \c{AUTOEXEC.BAT} and install a virus for you. Since |
| 97 | the wildcard matching rules are decided by the server, the client |
| 98 | cannot reliably verify that the filenames sent back match the |
| 99 | pattern. |
| 100 | |
| 101 | PSCP will attempt to use the newer SFTP protocol (part of SSH 2) |
| 102 | where possible, which does not suffer from this security flaw. If |
| 103 | you are talking to an SSH 2 server which supports SFTP, you will |
| 104 | never see this warning. |
| 105 | |
| 106 | If you really need to use a server-side wildcard with an SSH 1 |
| 107 | server, you can use the \c{-unsafe} command line option with PSCP: |
| 108 | |
| 109 | \c pscp -unsafe fred@example.com:source/*.c c:\source |
| 110 | |
| 111 | This will suppress the warning message and the file transfer will |
| 112 | happen. However, you should be aware that by using this option you |
| 113 | are giving the server the ability to write to \e{any} file in the |
| 114 | target directory, so you should only use this option if you trust |
| 115 | the server administrator not to be malicious (and not to let the |
| 116 | server machine be cracked by malicious people). |
| 117 | |
| 118 | \S2{pscp-usage-basics-user} \c{user} |
| 119 | |
| 120 | The login name on the remote server. If this is omitted, and \c{host} |
| 121 | is a PuTTY saved session, PSCP will use any username specified by that |
| 122 | saved session. Otherwise, PSCP will attempt to use the local Windows |
| 123 | username. |
| 124 | |
| 125 | \S2{pscp-usage-basics-host} \c{host} |
| 126 | |
| 127 | The name of the remote server, or the name of an existing PuTTY saved |
| 128 | session. In the latter case, the session's settings for hostname, port |
| 129 | number, cipher type and username will be used. |
| 130 | |
| 131 | \S2{pscp-usage-basics-source} \c{source} |
| 132 | |
| 133 | One or more source files. \i{Wildcards} are allowed. The syntax of |
| 134 | wildcards depends on the system to which they apply, so if you are |
| 135 | copying \e{from} a Windows system \e{to} a UNIX system, you should use |
| 136 | Windows wildcard syntax (e.g. \c{*.*}), but if you are copying \e{from} |
| 137 | a UNIX system \e{to} a Windows system, you would use the wildcard |
| 138 | syntax allowed by your UNIX shell (e.g. \c{*}). |
| 139 | |
| 140 | If the source is a remote server and you do not specify a full |
| 141 | pathname (in UNIX, a pathname beginning with a \c{/} (slash) |
| 142 | character), what you specify as a source will be interpreted relative |
| 143 | to your home directory on the remote server. |
| 144 | |
| 145 | \S2{pscp-usage-basics-target} \c{target} |
| 146 | |
| 147 | The filename or directory to put the file(s). When copying from a |
| 148 | remote server to a local host, you may wish simply to place the |
| 149 | file(s) in the current directory. To do this, you should specify a |
| 150 | target of \c{.}. For example: |
| 151 | |
| 152 | \c pscp fred@example.com:/home/tom/.emacs . |
| 153 | |
| 154 | ...would copy \c{/home/tom/.emacs} on the remote server to the current |
| 155 | directory. |
| 156 | |
| 157 | As with the \c{source} parameter, if the target is on a remote server |
| 158 | and is not a full path name, it is interpreted relative to your home |
| 159 | directory on the remote server. |
| 160 | |
| 161 | \S{pscp-usage-options} Options |
| 162 | |
| 163 | These are the command line options that PSCP accepts. |
| 164 | |
| 165 | \S2{pscp-usage-options-p}\c{-p} preserve file attributes |
| 166 | |
| 167 | By default, files copied with PSCP are \i{timestamp}ed with the date and |
| 168 | time they were copied. The \c{-p} option preserves the original |
| 169 | timestamp on copied files. |
| 170 | |
| 171 | \S2{pscp-usage-options-q}\c{-q} quiet, don't show \i{statistics} |
| 172 | |
| 173 | By default, PSCP displays a meter displaying the progress of the |
| 174 | current transfer: |
| 175 | |
| 176 | \c mibs.tar | 168 kB | 84.0 kB/s | ETA: 00:00:13 | 13% |
| 177 | |
| 178 | The fields in this display are (from left to right), filename, size |
| 179 | (in kilobytes) of file transferred so far, estimate of how fast the |
| 180 | file is being transferred (in kilobytes per second), estimated time |
| 181 | that the transfer will be complete, and percentage of the file so far |
| 182 | transferred. The \c{-q} option to PSCP suppresses the printing of |
| 183 | these statistics. |
| 184 | |
| 185 | \S2{pscp-usage-options-r}\c{-r} copies directories \i{recursive}ly |
| 186 | |
| 187 | By default, PSCP will only copy files. Any directories you specify to |
| 188 | copy will be skipped, as will their contents. The \c{-r} option tells |
| 189 | PSCP to descend into any directories you specify, and to copy them and |
| 190 | their contents. This allows you to use PSCP to transfer whole |
| 191 | directory structures between machines. |
| 192 | |
| 193 | \S2{pscp-usage-options-v}\c{-v} show \i{verbose} messages |
| 194 | |
| 195 | The \c{-v} option to PSCP makes it print extra information about the |
| 196 | file transfer. For example: |
| 197 | |
| 198 | \c Logging in as "fred". |
| 199 | \c fred@example.com's password: |
| 200 | \c Sending command: scp -v -f mibs.tar |
| 201 | \c Connected to example.com |
| 202 | \c Sending file modes: C0644 1320960 mibs.tar |
| 203 | \c mibs.tar | 1290 kB | 67.9 kB/s | ETA: 00:00:00 | 100% |
| 204 | \c Remote exit status 0 |
| 205 | \c Closing connection |
| 206 | |
| 207 | This information may be useful for debugging problems with PSCP. |
| 208 | |
| 209 | \S2{pscp-usage-options-P}\c{-P port} connect to specified \i{port} |
| 210 | |
| 211 | If the \c{host} you specify is a saved session, PSCP uses any port |
| 212 | number specified in that saved session. If not, PSCP uses the default |
| 213 | SSH port, 22. The \c{-P} option allows you specify the port number to |
| 214 | connect to for PSCP's SSH connection. |
| 215 | |
| 216 | \S2{pscp-usage-options-pw}\c{-pw passw} login with specified \i{password} |
| 217 | |
| 218 | If a password is required to connect to the \c{host}, PSCP will |
| 219 | interactively prompt you for it. However, this may not always be |
| 220 | appropriate. If you are running PSCP as part of some automated job, |
| 221 | it will not be possible to enter a password by hand. The \c{-pw} |
| 222 | option to PSCP lets you specify the password to use on the command |
| 223 | line. |
| 224 | |
| 225 | Since specifying passwords in scripts is a bad idea for security |
| 226 | reasons, you might want instead to consider using public-key |
| 227 | authentication; see \k{pscp-pubkey}. |
| 228 | |
| 229 | \S{pscp-pubkey} Return value |
| 230 | |
| 231 | PSCP returns an \cw{ERRORLEVEL} of zero (success) only if the files |
| 232 | were correctly transferred. You can test for this in a batch file, |
| 233 | using code such as this: |
| 234 | |
| 235 | \c pscp file*.* user@hostname: |
| 236 | \c if errorlevel 1 echo There was an error |
| 237 | |
| 238 | \S{pscp-pubkey} Using public key authentication with PSCP |
| 239 | |
| 240 | Like PuTTY, PSCP can authenticate using a public key instead of a |
| 241 | password. There are two ways you can do this. |
| 242 | |
| 243 | Firstly, PSCP can use PuTTY saved sessions in place of hostnames |
| 244 | (see \k{pscp-usage-basics-host}). So you would do this: |
| 245 | |
| 246 | \b Run PuTTY, and create a PuTTY saved session (see |
| 247 | \k{config-saving}) which specifies your private key file (see |
| 248 | \k{config-ssh-privkey}). You will probably also want to specify a |
| 249 | username to log in as (see \k{config-username}). |
| 250 | |
| 251 | \b In PSCP, you can now use the name of the session instead of a |
| 252 | hostname: type \c{pscp sessionname:file localfile}, where |
| 253 | \c{sessionname} is replaced by the name of your saved session. |
| 254 | |
| 255 | Secondly, PSCP will attempt to authenticate using Pageant if Pageant |
| 256 | is running (see \k{pageant}). So you would do this: |
| 257 | |
| 258 | \b Ensure Pageant is running, and has your private key stored in it. |
| 259 | |
| 260 | \b Specify a user and host name to PSCP as normal. PSCP will |
| 261 | automatically detect Pageant and try to use the keys within it. |
| 262 | |
| 263 | For more general information on public-key authentication, see |
| 264 | \k{pubkey}. |
| 265 | |
| 266 | \H{pscp-ixplorer} \i{Secure iXplorer} |
| 267 | |
| 268 | Lars Gunnarson has written a graphical interface for PSCP. You can |
| 269 | get it from his web site, at |
| 270 | \W{http://www.i-tree.org/}{www.i-tree.org}. |