Rsync – MOVE files from remote source to local destination

rsync

I'm trying to MOVE files from remote server to local folder. Files need to be REMOVED from remote source.
I tried:

rsync -avz –remove-source-files ssh remote_user@remote_machine:/home/remote_user/a_folder/ ~/a_folder/

which copies but does not remove the files from the remote source

Thanks

Best Answer

Does it have to happen in one command, you could just copy, then delete?

Another option would be to mount via SSHFS and use mv to move the files.

UPDATE

Two commands isn't really much more difficult or complex than one;

rsync -avz ssh remote_user@remote_machine:/home/remote_user/a_folder/ ~/a_folder/
ssh remote_user@remote_machin rm -rf /home/remote_user/a_folder/*

Related Solutions

Linux – Copying a large directory tree locally? cp or rsync

I would use rsync as it means that if it is interrupted for any reason, then you can restart it easily with very little cost. And being rsync, it can even restart part way through a large file. As others mention, it can exclude files easily. The simplest way to preserve most things is to use the -a flag – ‘archive.’ So:

rsync -a source dest

Although UID/GID and symlinks are preserved by -a (see -lpgo), your question implies you might want a full copy of the filesystem information; and -a doesn't include hard-links, extended attributes, or ACLs (on Linux) or the above nor resource forks (on OS X.) Thus, for a robust copy of a filesystem, you'll need to include those flags:

rsync -aHAX source dest # Linux
rsync -aHE source dest  # OS X

The default cp will start again, though the -u flag will "copy only when the SOURCE file is newer than the destination file or when the destination file is missing". And the -a (archive) flag will be recursive, not recopy files if you have to restart and preserve permissions. So:

cp -au source dest

Rsync and –remove-source-files – Efficient File Management

You could always delete them manually with something like this:

find /path/to/directory -depth -type d -print0 \
    | xargs --null --no-run-if-empty rmdir --

This will only delete empty directories.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux – Copying a large directory tree locally? cp or rsync

Rsync and –remove-source-files – Efficient File Management

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