Script recipes

Each recipe is a script fragment or a shell wrapper you can adapt. They assume a stored site called files or a URL with -hostkey, as explained in sessions and credentials, and the error handling from exit codes.

Fetch only the newest file

-latest picks the most recently modified file among those that match:

open files
get -latest /exports/sales-*.csv /home/alice/in/
exit

Name the download after the date

get /var/log/app.log /home/alice/logs/app-%TIMESTAMP#yyyy-mm-dd%.log

Upload without exposing half-written files

Readers on the server should never pick up a file that is still arriving. Upload under a temporary name, then rename it in one step:

put /home/alice/out/report.csv /incoming/report.csv.part
mv /incoming/report.csv.part /incoming/report.csv

Download only when the sender is done

Many senders drop a marker file after the data. stat fails when the marker is missing, which stops the script with exit code 1 before anything is fetched:

open files
stat /exports/ready.flag
get /exports/*.csv /home/alice/in/
rm /exports/ready.flag
exit

In the wrapper, treat code 1 as “try again later”, not as an alarm.

Archive local files after a successful upload

Let linscp-cli delete the sources as it uploads them with put -delete, or keep them and move them from the shell once the whole run has succeeded:

if linscp-cli /nointeractiveinput /script=upload.txt /log=upload.log; then
  mv /home/alice/out/*.csv /home/alice/sent/
fi

Retry a flaky connection

#!/bin/sh
for attempt in 1 2 3 4 5; do
  linscp-cli /nointeractiveinput /script=job.txt /log=job.log && exit 0
  echo "attempt $attempt failed" >&2
  sleep $((attempt * 60))
done
exit 1

Inside one run, option reconnecttime already covers short drops.

Upload a list of files

Build the script from a list, one path per line, then run it:

{
  echo 'open files'
  echo 'cd /incoming'
  while IFS= read -r f; do
    printf 'put "%s"\n' "$(printf '%s' "$f" | sed 's/"/""/g')"
  done < /home/alice/to-send.txt
  echo 'exit'
} > /tmp/send.txt
linscp-cli /nointeractiveinput /script=/tmp/send.txt

The sed doubles any double quote in a name, as script quoting requires.

Same job, several servers

Pass the site as a parameter and loop in the shell:

for site in web1 web2 web3; do
  linscp-cli /nointeractiveinput /script=deploy.txt /parameter // "$site" \
    || echo "deploy to $site failed" >&2
done

deploy.txt

open %1%
synchronize remote -delete /home/alice/site/public /var/www/html
exit

Stream to and from other programs

With /stdout, get writes the file to standard output when the target is -. Status messages move to standard error. This backs up a remote database dump without a temporary file:

linscp-cli /stdout /command 'open files' 'get /backups/db.sql -' 'exit' \
  | gzip > /home/alice/backups/db-$(date +%F).sql.gz

With /stdin, put - reads the data from standard input:

tar -czf - -C /home/alice site | linscp-cli /stdin /command 'open files' 'put - /backups/site.tar.gz' 'exit'

Mail the result

if ! linscp-cli /nointeractiveinput /script=job.txt /log=job.log; then
  tail -n 50 job.log | mail -s "linscp job failed on $(hostname)" alice@example.com
fi

See the command reference for every switch used here.