Does scp create the target folder if it does not exist [closed]

Question

I am wondering if scp will create the target folder if it does not exist on the remote server. For example, would this work?

scp -r /data/install/somefolder [email protected]:/data/install/somefolder 

Here the folder /data/install/somefolder doesn't exist on ftp server, so would this command create it?

N.B. I have read about rsync but am not really sure how it works or how to use it yet.

Answer 1

To achieve the task with ssh and scp (instead of rsync):

Solution

Lets break into 2 steps :

1. Create directory if missing:

ssh [email protected] "mkdir -p /data/install/somefolder" 

2. Copy to it:

scp -r /data/install/somefolder [email protected]:/data/install/somefolder 

---

Put them together

server="[email protected]" destiny="/data/install/somefolder" src="/data/install/somefolder" ssh "$server" "mkdir -p $destiny" && scp -r "$src" "$server:$destiny" 

Answer 2

Short answer: no.

...but rsync does, which is why I have aliased scp to rsync -Pravdtze ssh on my box. Yes, that's a lot of switches, which in combination produces my preferred rsync behavior. As rsync does provide a very extensive set of switches and options, I suggest you do some research on it to see what fits your needs best. Man-page is a good place to start, but there are a lot of info easily available. Here's a decent list of examples.

Edit: Actually, in that particular case you posted, the folder will be created, as that's the folder you're copying. However, if you're trying to copy it to user@remotehost:somenonexistentfolder/somefolder, then it will fail.