Custom commands

A custom command is a command line you save once and run from a menu, a toolbar button or a key. Patterns in it are replaced when it runs: with the selected file names, the current path, the host name, and so on. A command can run on the server or on your own computer.

Run a custom command

• Commands that act on files are in Files › File Custom Commands and in the file context menu. Select the files first.
• Commands that do not need files are in Commands › Static Custom Commands.
• Options › Toolbars › Custom Command Buttons shows a toolbar with one button per command.

To run a one-off command without saving it, choose Enter… at the bottom of either menu. After that, the menu also offers to run that command again.

linscp ships with a few examples, among them commands to make a file executable and run it, touch files, pack and unpack tar archives, and grep for a word.

Create a command

1. Open Options › Preferences › Integration › Commands.
2. Click Add… (or the arrow next to it, then Add Custom Command…).
3. Fill in Description, the name shown in menus.
4. Write the Custom command, for example du -sh "!".
5. Choose Remote command to run it on the server, or Local command to run it on your computer.
6. Set the options you need (below) and, if you like, a Keyboard shortcut.
7. Click OK.

Use Edit…, Remove, Up and Down to maintain the list. The order is the order of the menus.

Options

• Apply to directories – also run for selected directories, not only files.
• Execute recursively – run for every file inside the selected directories.
• Show results in terminal – open a window with the output.
• Copy results to clipboard – put the output on the clipboard.
• Use remote files – for a local command started from the remote panel: pass the remote paths to the command instead of downloading the files first.

Without Use remote files, a local command on remote files works on temporary copies. linscp downloads the files, runs the command, and uploads any file the command changed.

Patterns

Pattern	Replaced with
!	One file path. The command runs once per selected file. Put it in quotes.
!&	All selected paths, quoted and separated by spaces. The command runs once.
!/	The current remote directory, ending in /.
!\	The current local directory.
!^!	A file in the local panel, to pair with a remote file (Commander interface).
!@, !U, !P, !#	Host name, user name, password (if known) and port of the session.
!N	The site name.
!K	The path of the session’s private key.
!S, !E	A session URL; !E adds the advanced settings. Useful to start linscp-cli on the same server.
!?Question?default!	A value you type when the command runs.
!`cmd`	The output of a local command.
!!	A literal !.

Click patterns in the dialog for the full list.

Examples

# Remote: archive the selected directories into one file
tar -czf "!?Archive name:?backup.tgz!" !&

# Remote: show disk usage of each selected item
du -sh "!"

# Local: compare a local and a remote file with Meld
meld "!^!" "!"

Caution

!P puts your password on a command line, where other users of the same machine may see it in the process list. Prefer key-based login for commands that start other programs.

Extensions

Windows only

WinSCP-style extensions (.WinSCPextension files) are PowerShell scripts that rely on Windows PowerShell and the WinSCP .NET assembly. linscp loads and runs them on Windows, through Add Extension… in the same list. On Linux, WinSCP’s published extensions are not offered.