-\versionid $Id: pscp.but,v 1.17 2001/09/24 22:00:46 simon Exp $
+\versionid $Id: pscp.but,v 1.22 2002/09/11 17:30:36 jacob Exp $
\#FIXME: Need examples
\i{PSCP}, the PuTTY Secure Copy client, is a tool for transferring files
securely between computers using an SSH connection.
+If you have an SSH 2 server, you might prefer PSFTP (see \k{psftp})
+for interactive use. PSFTP does not in general work with SSH 1
+servers, however.
+
\H{pscp-starting} Starting PSCP
PSCP is a command line application. This means that you cannot just
\c Z:\owendadmin>pscp
\c PuTTY Secure Copy client
-\c Release 0.50
+\c Release 0.53
\c Usage: pscp [options] [user@]host:source target
-\c pscp [options] source [source...] [user@]host:target
-\c pscp [options] -ls user@host:filespec
+\c pscp [options] source [source...] [user@]host:target
+\c pscp [options] -ls user@host:filespec
\c Options:
\c -p preserve file attributes
\c -q quiet, don't show statistics
\c -r copy directories recursively
\c -v show verbose messages
+\c -load sessname Load settings from saved session
\c -P port connect to specified port
+\c -l user connect with specified username
\c -pw passw login with specified password
+\c -1 -2 force use of particular SSH protocol version
+\c -C enable compression
+\c -i key private key file for authentication
+\c -batch disable all interactive prompts
+\c -unsafe allow server-side wildcards (DANGEROUS)
(PSCP's interface is much like the Unix \c{scp} command, if you're
familiar with that.)
\S{pscp-usage-options} Options
+PSCP accepts all the general command line options supported by the
+PuTTY tools, except the ones which make no sense in a file transfer
+utility. See \k{using-general-opts} for a description of these
+options. (The ones not supported by PSCP are clearly marked.)
+
+PSCP also supports some of its own options. The following sections
+describe PSCP's specific command-line options.
+
These are the command line options that PSCP accepts.
\S2{pscp-usage-options-p}\c{-p} preserve file attributes
their contents. This allows you to use PSCP to transfer whole
directory structures between machines.
-\S2{pscp-usage-options-v}\c{-v} show \i{verbose} messages
-
-The \c{-v} option to PSCP makes it print extra information about the
-file transfer. For example:
-
-\c Logging in as "fred".
-\c fred@example.com's password:
-\c Sending command: scp -v -f mibs.tar
-\c Connected to example.com
-\c Sending file modes: C0644 1320960 mibs.tar
-\c mibs.tar | 1290 kB | 67.9 kB/s | ETA: 00:00:00 | 100%
-\c Remote exit status 0
-\c Closing connection
+\S2{pscp-usage-options-batch}\c{-batch} avoid interactive prompts
-This information may be useful for debugging problems with PSCP.
+If you use the \c{-batch} option, PSCP will never give an
+interactive prompt while establishing the connection. If the
+server's host key is invalid, for example (see \k{gs-hostkey}), then
+the connection will simply be abandoned instead of asking you what
+to do next.
-\S2{pscp-usage-options-P}\c{-P port} connect to specified \i{port}
+This may help PSCP's behaviour when it is used in automated
+scripts: using \c{-batch}, if something goes wrong at connection
+time, the batch job will fail rather than hang.
-If the \c{host} you specify is a saved session, PSCP uses any port
-number specified in that saved session. If not, PSCP uses the default
-SSH port, 22. The \c{-P} option allows you specify the port number to
-connect to for PSCP's SSH connection.
-
-\S2{pscp-usage-options-pw}\c{-pw passw} login with specified \i{password}
-
-If a password is required to connect to the \c{host}, PSCP will
-interactively prompt you for it. However, this may not always be
-appropriate. If you are running PSCP as part of some automated job,
-it will not be possible to enter a password by hand. The \c{-pw}
-option to PSCP lets you specify the password to use on the command
-line.
-
-Since specifying passwords in scripts is a bad idea for security
-reasons, you might want instead to consider using public-key
-authentication; see \k{pscp-pubkey}.
-
-\S{pscp-pubkey} Return value
+\S{pscp-retval} Return value
PSCP returns an \cw{ERRORLEVEL} of zero (success) only if the files
were correctly transferred. You can test for this in a batch file,
\S{pscp-pubkey} Using public key authentication with PSCP
Like PuTTY, PSCP can authenticate using a public key instead of a
-password. There are two ways you can do this.
+password. There are three ways you can do this.
Firstly, PSCP can use PuTTY saved sessions in place of hostnames
(see \k{pscp-usage-basics-host}). So you would do this:
hostname: type \c{pscp sessionname:file localfile}, where
\c{sessionname} is replaced by the name of your saved session.
-Secondly, PSCP will attempt to authenticate using Pageant if Pageant
+Secondly, you can supply the name of a private key file on the command
+line, with the \c{-i} option. See \k{using-cmdline-identity} for more
+information.
+
+Thirdly, PSCP will attempt to authenticate using Pageant if Pageant
is running (see \k{pageant}). So you would do this:
\b Ensure Pageant is running, and has your private key stored in it.