How to filter files when using scp to copy dir recursively?

Question

I need to copy all the .class files from server to local with all dir reserved. e.g. server:/usr/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders/me.class will be /usr/project/backup/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders/me.class the problem is, there are many other useless files such as .svn-base files that i don't want. how can i filter them so I only scp .class files?

Answer 1

1. Copy your source folder to somedir:

   cp -r srcdir somedir

2. Remove all unneeded files:

   find somedir -name '.svn' -exec rm -rf {} \+

3. launch scp from somedir

Answer 2

There is no feature in scp to filter files. For "advanced" stuff like this, I recommend using rsync:

rsync -a --exclude '*.svn' server:dir .

Recent versions of rsync tunnel over an ssh connection automatically by default.

Answer 3

I'd probably recommend using something like rsync for this due to its include and exclude flags, e.g:-

rsync -rav -e ssh --include='*.class' --exclude='*' \
server:/usr/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders/ \ 
/usr/project/backup/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders/

Answer 4

I like the rsync option mentioned. You didn't mention if this is a one-off operation, or if you'll be automating this repeatedly.

For a one-off operation, the judicious use of find, grep -v, xargs and temporary files should make short work of this.

Answer 5

Since you can scp you should be ok to ssh,
either script the following or login and execute...

# After reaching the server of interest
cd /usr/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders
tar cfj pack.tar.bz2 $(find . -type f -name *.class)

return back (logout) to local server and scp,

# from the local machine
cd /usr/project/backup/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders
scp you@server:/usr/some/unknown/number/of/sub/folders/pack.tar.bz2 .
tar xfj pack.tar.bz2

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If you find the $(find ...) is too long for your tar change to,

find . -type f -name *.class | xargs tar cfj pack.tar.bz2

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Finally, since you are keeping it in /usr/project/backup/,
why bother extraction? Just keep the tar.bz2, with maybe a date+time stamp.