Why can't I copy with scp when I'm using * characters in the path?
scp SERVERNAME:/DIR/* .
What configuration does SCP need in order to allow * in the path?
UPDATE: the problem is not on server side; pscp is trying to use SCPv1, and that's why the error message:
You need to pass a literal escape to scp to avoid the remote machine treating * as a glob (notice that it is doubly quoted):
scp 'SERVERNAME:/DIR/\*' .
scp expands the glob, even if your shell doesn't (you can try it for yourself). There are two stages: stopping your shell from expanding the glob (which is not necessary because it should have nothing to expand the glob to, and thus will remain intact), and telling scp that this character is not a glob. If it was your shell expanding the glob you would not have to escape it at all.
Commented
Dec 23, 2011 at 13:29
touch /tmp/abcd.1234; scp 'localhost:/tmp/abcd.\*' ./: scp: /tmp/abcd.*: No such file or directory
pscp on the client side to allow remote globbing.
I found Patrick's advice to be correct, although Chris's answer got me on the right track. Use quotes and then you don't need the backslash before the asterisk.
With quotes+backslash:
$ scp 'SERVERNAME:/tmp/file_num\*' .
scp: /tmp/file_num*.csv: No such file or directory
With quotes only:
$ scp 'SERVERNAME:/tmp/file_num*' .
judgments_for_job_171642.csv 100% 32KB 32.0KB/s 00:00
judgments_for_job_172394.csv 100% 548KB 182.6KB/s 00:03
*), not about how to glob on the remote only.
Commented
Dec 8, 2013 at 20:57
In order to avoid globbing you want both - single quotes and an escaped asterisk:
scp 'SERVERNAME:/DIR/\*' ./
If you want to use wildcards use either single quotes or escape only the asterisk:
scp 'SERVERNAME:/DIR/*' ./
# or
scp SERVERNAME:/DIR/\* ./
It seems that scp only supports wildcards for file names but not for directory names.
NOTE: Solution offered below tested and known to work correctly.
Single quotes will break variable expansion if you've aliased part of the path that you're globbing.
Here's a script that uses DOUBLE quotes for the use-case of the globbed filename command-configure_.tar.gz* using a path aliased with a variable:
#!/bin/bash
USEREXECUTINGSCRIPT='admin'
SCRIPTSDIR="myscripts"
SCPUSER='terrencehoulahan'
SCPUSERPASSWD='Change-Me'
SCPHOST='1.2.3.4'
SCPDIRECTORYREMOTE='/Users/terrencehoulahan/Downloads/Ubuntu/18.04'
## Uncomment appropriate below command for your distro to install "sshpass"
#apt-get -y sshpass
#yum -y install sshpass
sshpass -p "$SCPUSERPASSWD" scp -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no $SCPUSER@$SCPHOST:"$SCPDIRECTORYREMOTE/command-configure_*.tar.gz" $(getent passwd|grep ^$(echo $USEREXECUTINGSCRIPT)|cut -d ':' -f6)/$SCRIPTSDIR/
After the closing double quote, the local directory target is constructed by just extracting the specified user's home dir from /etc/passwd.
The scp command itself is prefaced with sshpass and -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no to fully automate the scp command without user interaction. Looks convoluted but better than hard-coding paths which are expected to change from time to time.
Anyhoo, an example using double quotes where variables in the path you're globbing need to be allowed to expand. HTH
Well actually just use -r in similar cases. Especially if you use variables in your script.
Example:
SERVERNAME="[email protected]"
scp -r $SERVERNAME:/DIR/ ./
*for file globbing, or to copy a file called*(see disagreement in comments as to what the question is asking)."C:/test"— so, the problem is on the local side, which is Windows????? Why is this question on Unix&Linux?rsyncfor complicated case like this instead of using scp.