RCP(1) BSD General Commands Manual RCP(1)NAMErcp — remote file copy
SYNOPSISrcp [-46p] source_file target_file
rcp [-46pr] source_file ... target_directory
DESCRIPTION
The rcp utility copies files between machines. Each source_file,
target_file, or target_directory argument is either a remote file name of
the form “ruser@rhost:path”, or a local file name (containing no ‘:’
characters, or a ‘/’ before any ‘:’s).
The following options are available:
-4 Use IPv4 addresses only.
-6 Use IPv6 addresses only.
-p Cause rcp to attempt to preserve (duplicate) in its copies the
modification times and modes of the source files, ignoring the
umask(2). By default, the mode and owner of target_file are pre‐
served if it already exists; otherwise the mode of the source
file modified by the umask(2) on the destination host is used.
-r If any of the source files are directories, rcp copies each sub‐
tree rooted at that name; in this case the destination must be a
directory.
If path is not a full path name, it is interpreted relative to the login
directory of the specified user ruser on rhost, or your current user name
if no other remote user name is specified. A path on a remote host may
be quoted (using ‘\’, ‘"’, or ‘´’) so that the metacharacters are inter‐
preted remotely.
The rcp utility does not prompt for passwords; it performs remote execu‐
tion via rsh(1), and requires the same authorization.
The rcp utility handles third party copies, where neither source nor tar‐
get files are on the current machine.
SEE ALSOcp(1), ftp(1), rlogin(1), rsh(1), hosts.equiv(5)HISTORY
The rcp command appeared in 4.2BSD.
BUGS
Does not detect all cases where the target of a copy might be a file in
cases where only a directory should be legal.
Is confused by any output generated by commands in a .login, .profile, or
.cshrc file on the remote host.
The destination user and hostname may have to be specified as
“rhost.ruser” when the destination machine is running the 4.2BSD version
of rcp.
BSD October 16, 2002 BSD
