Topics in Systematics and Evolution: Bioinformatics for Evolutionary Biology

Topic 2: Copying files across machines

These instructions are part of Topic 2

Copying files between machines

You can copy files from your computer to your server account and (vice versa) in a multitude of ways.

Follow instructions that pertain to your software and operating system.

With the terminal (linux/mac/mobaxterm):

To copy a small set of files you can use the scp command.

Note: If your ~/.ssh/config has an alias for serveruser@serverhost, called b525, substitute “serveruser@serverhost” with just “b525” below

Examples:

   # creates a copy of three files in ~/path/on/server/
   # the destination directory must exist
   scp ~/mydir/file1 ./file2 /path/to/file3 serveruser@serverhost:path/on/server/

   # creates a copy of the file in the home directory on the server (nothing after :)
   scp myfile.txt serveruser@serverhost:

   # the server path is relative to the home directory, but an absolute path can be
   # provided
   scp myfile.txt serveruser@serverhost:/scratch/myuser/

   # for Moba, your C:\ drive is in /mnt/c/.
   # moba also creates a folder called MyDocuments inside your moba home
   # which points to your windows documents folder.
   scp ~/MyDocuments/my_file.txt serveruser@serverhost:path/on/server/

You can reverse the arguments to copy files from the server to your laptop. The last argument is always the destination.

To copy a large set of files (or a small set of large files)

For large files, or synchronizing content between computers, best use rsync, which can skip files that are already on the server side (based on timestamps). There are also options to transfer based on content differences (see man rsync).

To copy a whole local directory localdir recursively on the server, into ~/dest/, you would use:

# Note: the destination has a trailing '/'. This means "into dest/".
# X/1.txt ends up in ~/dest/X/1.txt
rsync -v --progress -rlpt localdir serveruser@serverhost:dest/

# Note: the destination has no trailing '/'. This means "X" is renamed to "dest"
# X/1.txt ends up in ~/dest/1.txt
rsync -v --progress -rlpt localdir serveruser@serverhost:dest

Options used in the example:

-r: recursive
-l: copy symlinks as symlinks
-p: keep permissions (e.g. executables remain executables, read-only remain read-only, etc.)
-t: preserve timestamps
-v: verbose

Using cyberduck (mac/windows)

If you connect to your assigned server using SFTP, you can browse to the destination folder and use drag and drop. Take care to save your file with Unix line endings if you can configure your editor to do so.

Using the sftp browser in MobaXterm

Once you’re connected in a user session, on the left there is a pane showing your files. You can use drag and drop and create new files there.

Using Psftp (from the Putty suite for windows)

Start psftp.exe (windowskey+r psftp enter).

The commands below are typed at the psftp prompt:

Connect to the server with the open command:

open serverhost

Note: If you have a saved putty profile for the course, e.g. b525, you can simply do:
        open b525
and your username, host, and your preset key/password settings will be loaded from the named profile.

With the SFTP protocol, you adjust the source folder and destination folder independently, then you issue either a PUT to upload a local file (to the remote), or a GET to download a remote file (to the local computer).

Change the local folder with the lcd command. eg. for the user myself’s My Documents:
```
 > lcd c:\users\myself\documents
```
Change the folder on the remote server with cd. e.g. for folder ~/my_files/:
```
 > cd my_files
```
You can list the files in the remote directory with ls. You can list the files on the local directory with !dir.
You can print the current remote directory with pwd (print working directory), and the local remote directory with lpwd.
To copy a file from the local folder to the remote folder, you use put. e.g.
```
 > put local_file.txt
```
See help put to show more options. It supports recursive copies.
To copy a file from the remote folder to the local folder, you use get e.g.:
```
 > get remote_file.txt
```
See help get to show more options. It supports recursive copies.
If you need to create new directories you can use the mkdir (on the remote, and !mkdir on the local side.
If you intend to copy more files later on, you can leave the connection open.
If you’re done transferring things, you can issue the quit command.