Post
Terminal: Copy recursive directory from remote with SSH and TAR
Cloning directories from a remote server can be tricky. Sometimes SCP won't be enough. So I find a way to do it correctly for my purpose.
root@local-server:/my/destiny/directory# ssh username@remote-server "sudo -S tar --directory='/my/directory/i/want/to/copy' --exclude='directory/to/skip' --exclude='directory/to/skip2/log' -vczpf - ." | tar -vxzpf - -C /my/destiny/directory
Go to your terminal, and it might look like this
username@local-server:~#
Go to your destination folder for example /var/www.
username@local-server:~# cd /var/www
result would be
username@local-server:/var/www#
Log yourself as root
username@local-server:/var/www# sudo -s
and type your password and result would be
root@local-server:/var/www#
I know that my remote the source I want to copy is also /var/www.
Make sure the source and destination folder do exist
Type the command
root@local-server:/var/www# ssh username@remote-server "sudo -S tar -C /var/www --exclude='log' --exclude='vhosts/mysecretstash' -vczpf - ." | tar -vxzpf -
See you saw sudo -S with the capital 'S'. this flag is needed when you need to type your password in prompt
As result you'll see lines of paths that being copied to.
Bonus one line command
sudo ssh username@remote-server "sudo -S tar -C /var/www --exclude='log' --exclude='vhosts/mysecretstash' -vczpf - ." | sudo tar -vxzpf - -C /var/www
Of course it's possible to remove --exclude='' flags