rcp(1)rcp(1)NAMErcp - remote file copy
SYNOPSIS
Copy Single File
size] size] source_file1 dest_file
Copy Multiple Files
size] size] source_file1 [source_file2]... dest_dir
Copy One or More Directory Subtrees
size] size] source_dir1 [source_dir2]... dest_dir
Copy Files and Directory Subtrees
size] size] file_or_dir1 [file_or_dir2]... dest_dir
In Kerberos V5 Network Authentication Environments
Copy Single File
realm] size] size] source_file1 dest_file
Copy Multiple Files
realm] size] size] source_file1 [source_file2]... dest_dir
Copy One or More Directory Subtrees
realm] size] size] source_dir1 [source_dir2]... dest_dir
Copy Files and Directory Subtrees
realm] size] size] file_or_dir1 [file_or_dir2]... dest_dir
DESCRIPTION
The command copies files, directory subtrees, or a combination of files
and directory subtrees from one or more systems to another. In many
respects, it is similar to the command (see cp(1)).
To use you must have read access to files being copied, and read and
search (execute) permission on all directories in the directory path.
Note that there are special requirements for third-party transfers,
which are described in the section below.
In a Kerberos V5 Network Authentication environment, uses the Kerberos
V5 protocol while initiating the connection to a remote host. The
authorization mechanism is dependent on the command line options used
to invoke on the remote host (i.e., Kerberos authentication and autho‐
rization rules are described in the Secure Internet Services man page,
sis(5).
Although Kerberos authentication and authorizations may apply, the Ker‐
beros mechanism is not applied when copying files. The files are still
transferred in clear text over the network.
The option can be set in the file within Refer to the krb5.conf(4) man‐
page for more information on the If is set to true and the kerberos
authentication fails, will use the non-secure mode of authentication.
Note: Command line options override the configuration file
options.
Options and Arguments
recognizes the following options and arguments:
source_file, source_dir
This option specifies the name of an existing
file or directory on a local or remote machine
that you want to be copied to a specified desti‐
nation. The source file and directory names are
constructed as follows:
or
Component parts of file and directory names are
described below. If multiple existing files
and/or directory subtrees (source_file1,
source_file2, ..., etc.) are specified, then the
destination must be a directory. Shell file name
expansion is allowed on both local and remote
systems. Multiple files and directory subtrees
can be copied from one or more systems to a sin‐
gle destination directory by using a single com‐
mand.
dest_file This option specifies the name of the destination
file. If host name and path name are not speci‐
fied, then the existing file is copied into a
file named dest_file in the current directory on
the local system. If dest_file already exists
and is writable, then the existing file is over‐
written. The destination file names are con‐
structed in the same way as source files except
that the usage of file name expansion characters
is forbidden in the case of destination file
names.
dest_dir This option specifies the name of the destination
directory. If host name and path names are not
specified, then the existing file is copied into
a directory named dest_dir in the current direc‐
tory on the local system. If dest_dir already
exists in the specified directory path (or cur‐
rent directory if not specified), then a new
directory named dest_dir is created underneath
the existing directory named dest_dir. The des‐
tination directory names are constructed the in
same way as source directory tree names except
that the usage of file name expansion characters
is forbidden in the case of destination directory
names.
If the source_dir has more than one file to be
copied, the dest_dir does not exist, and if the
option is used for recursive copying, then first
creates the dest_dir and later copies the files
under the source_dir to the dest_dir.
file_or_dir If a combination of files and directories are
specified for copying (either explicitly or by
file name expansion), then only files are copied
unless the option is specified. If the option is
present, then all the files and directory sub‐
trees whose names match the specified file_or_dir
name are copied.
This option is applicable only in a secure environment based on
Kerberos V5.
It can be used to obtain tickets from the remote
host in the specified realm instead of the remote
host's default realm as specified in the configu‐
ration file
This option is applicable only in a secure environment based on
Kerberos V5.
It disables Kerberos authentication. If the
remote host has been configured to prevent non-
secure access, using this option would result in
the generic error,
See in remshd(1M) for more details.
This option can be used to preserve (duplicate) modification
times and
modes (permissions) of source files, ignoring the
current setting of the file creation mode mask.
If this option is specified, preserves the sticky
bit only if the target user is superuser.
If the option is not specified, preserves the
mode and owner of dest_file if it already exists;
otherwise uses the mode of the source file modi‐
fied by the on the destination host. Modifica‐
tion and access times of the destination file are
set to the time when the copy was made.
This option sets the size of the socket send buffer.
This option sets the size of the socket receive buffer.
This option can be used to recursively copy directory subtrees
rooted at the source directory name. If any
directory subtrees are to be copied, recursively
copies each subtree rooted at the specified
source directory name to directory dest_dir. If
source_dir is being copied to an existing direc‐
tory of the same name, creates a new directory
source_dir within dest_dir and copies the subtree
rooted at source_dir to If dest_dir does not
exist, first creates it and copies the subtree
rooted at source_dir to dest_dir and the output
will be similar irrespective of whether a wild‐
card character (source_dir/*) is used for copying
or otherwise.
Constructing File and Directory Names
As indicated above, file and directory names contain one, two, or four
component parts:
user_name Login name to be used for accessing directories and
files on remote system.
hostname Hostname of remote system where directories and
files are located.
pathname Absolute directory path name or directory path name
relative to the login directory of user user_name.
filename Actual name of source or destination file. File
name expansion is allowed on source file names.
dirname Actual name of source or destination directory sub‐
tree. File name expansion is allowed on source
directory names.
Each file or directory argument is either a remote file name of the
form or a local file name (with a slash before any colon hostname can
be either an official host name or an alias (see hosts(4)). If host‐
name is of the form ruser is used on the remote host instead of the
current user name. An unspecified path (that is, refers to the remote
user's login directory. If path does not begin with it is interpreted
relative to the remote user's login directory on hostname. Shell
metacharacters in remote paths can be quoted with backslash single
quotes or double quotes (), so that they will be interpreted remotely.
does not prompt for passwords. In a non-secure or traditional environ‐
ment, user authorization is checked by determining if the current local
user name or any user name specified via ruser exists on rhost. In a
Kerberos V5 Network Authentication or secure environment, the autho‐
rization method is dependent upon the command line options for (see
remshd(1M) for details). In either case, remote command execution via
remsh(1) and rcmd(3N), or rcmd_af(3N) in case of IPv6 systems, must be
allowed and remshd(1M) must be executable on the remote host.
Third-Party Transfers
Third-party transfers in the following form:
are performed as:
Therefore, for a such a transfer to succeed, ruser2 on rhost2 must
allow access by ruser1 from rhost1 (see hosts.equiv(4)).
rcp With IPv6 Address
To invoke with an IPv6 address, the IPv6 address must be enclosed in a
pair of square brackets as shown in the example below.
If the IPv6 address is not enclosed within square brackets, the first
occurrence of a colon is treated as the separator between the hostname
and the path.
WARNINGS
The routine is confused by any output generated by commands in a file
on the remote host (see csh(1)).
Copying a file onto itself, for example:
may produce inconsistent results. The current HP-UX version of simply
copies the file over itself. However, some implementations of includ‐
ing some earlier HP-UX implementations, corrupt the file. In addition,
the same file may be referred to in multiple ways, for example, via
hard links, symbolic links, or NFS. It is not guaranteed that will
correctly copy a file over itself in all cases.
Implementations of based on the 4.2BSD version (including the implemen‐
tations of prior to HP-UX 7.0) require that remote users be specified
as rhost.ruser. If the first remote host specified in a third party
transfer (rhost1 in the example below) uses this older syntax, the com‐
mand must have the form:
since the target is interpreted by rhost1. A common problem is encoun‐
tered when two remote files are to be copied to a remote target that
specifies a remote user. If the two remote source systems, rhost1 and
rhost2, each expect a different form for the remote target, the com‐
mand:
will certainly fail on one of the source systems. Perform such a
transfer using two separate commands.
With the existing implementation of the remote copy may result in a
system overwrite as described in the following example.
In this example, if you run as root, and unintentionally type a space
between the colon and the slash then assumes both path and (the remote
machine's root directory) as source. always interprets the last argu‐
ment as the destination. Therefore, the destination directory is the
local machine's root directory copies the content of path to the root
directory first. It then does another copy with as source to the root
directory again. This second copy overwrites the local system's root
directory with the remote system's root directory
DIAGNOSTICS
Diagnostics can occur from both the local and remote hosts. Those
diagnostics that occur on the local host before the connection is com‐
pletely established are written to standard error. Once the connection
is established, any error messages from the remote host are written to
standard output, like any other data.
There are two authentication mechanisms used by
One authentication mechanism is based on Kerberos and the
other is not. The type of authentication mechanism is
obtained from a system file which is updated by
inetsvcs_sec(1M). If the system file does not contain
known authentication types, the above error is displayed.
AUTHOR
was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
SEE ALSOcp(1), ftp(1), remsh(1), remshd(1M), inetsvcs_sec(1M), rcmd(3N),
rcmd_af(3N), hosts(4), hosts.equiv(4), krb5.conf(4), sis(5).
rcp(1)
