Script syntax

A linscp-cli script is a plain text file with one command per line. This page covers the rules every line follows. For what each command does, see the command reference.

Shape of a command

A line starts with the command name, then any switches, then the parameters:

get -preservetime -filemask=*.csv /data/exports/ /home/alice/incoming/

Switches begin with -, and some take a value after =. Their order among themselves does not matter. Keep them before the parameters so the line reads clearly.

Save script files as UTF-8. There is no line continuation: a command must fit on one line.

Comments

A line whose first character is # is ignored:

# Fetch yesterday's exports
open reports

A # later in a line is not a comment; it is part of the command.

Spaces and quotes

Wrap a parameter in double quotes when it contains spaces. To put a literal double quote inside a quoted parameter, write it twice:

put "/home/alice/Quarterly report.pdf"
put "/home/alice/the ""final"" draft.txt" /srv/docs/

On the command line, each /command argument is one script line, so the shell must pass it as one word. Use single quotes in the shell and double quotes inside the command:

linscp-cli /command 'open mysite' 'put "/home/alice/My file.txt"' 'exit'

Environment variables

Write %NAME% to insert the value of the environment variable NAME:

export SOURCE_DIR=/home/alice/site
linscp-cli /command 'open mysite' 'put "%SOURCE_DIR%/index.html"' 'exit'

A reference to a variable that is not set stays in the line unchanged, as %NAME%. Variables are only substituted; there is no string slicing or arithmetic. Do that in the shell and export the result.

Timestamps

%TIMESTAMP#format% becomes the current local time in the format you give. The letters yyyy, mm, dd, hh, nn (minutes) and ss stand for the date and time fields:

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

Put an offset before the # to shift the time: a sign, a number and one of Y, D, H, N or S. %TIMESTAMP-1D#yyyymmdd% is yesterday’s date.

Script parameters

Values passed after /parameter // are available as %1%, %2% and so on:

linscp-cli /script=fetch.txt /parameter // reports /home/alice/incoming

fetch.txt

open %1%
get /exports/* %2%/
exit

Write the // so that a parameter starting with / is not taken for a switch.

Paths and file names

• Remote paths always use /. A path without a leading / is relative to the remote working directory set by cd.
• Local paths are relative to the local working directory, which starts as the directory you ran linscp-cli from and changes with lcd.
• A target that is a directory must end with /, or linscp-cli treats the last part as a new file name.
• Names are case-sensitive in scripts, even when the server is not.

Masks

Wildcards select several files: * matches any run of characters and ? one character. get *.csv /home/alice/in/ downloads every CSV file in the remote directory. The -filemask switch accepts richer masks with exclusions and size or time conditions; see file masks.