How to download a file from the command line? via ssh?

Question

I want to download files from a remote server to my local drive, and do it from the command line. I also want to be able to do this over SSH. How can I do this?

Note: the remote server is Ubuntu, the local is Mac OS X

Answer 1

Use scp-command, it runs on top of ssh. Example:

scp username@remote.host:/path/to/file localfile

It also works another way round

scp localfile username@host:/path/remotefile

Username, path, and filename can be omitted (but not the : !).

As Iain said, sftp works also, but I tend to favor scp for its cp-like usage.

Answer 2

I use sftp for this. It's command line and uses the same security as ssh.

Answer 3

You can also use rsync for it. It can work over ssh.

Answer 4

If you can't use scp or sftp you can use tar over ssh:

tar cf - . | ssh otherhost "cd /mydir; tar xvf -"

This one is also good if you have sparse files which otherwise will "explode".