NAME

rcp − remote file copy  (includes NFS and AFS extensions)

SYNOPSIS

rcp [ −p ] [ −v ] file1 file2
rcp [ −p ] [ −r ] [ −v ] file ... directory

DESCRIPTION

Rcp copies files between machines.  Each file or directory argument is either a remote file name of the form “rhost:path”, or a local file name (containing no ‘:’ characters, or a ‘/’ before any ‘:’s). 

By default, the mode and owner of file2 are preserved if it already existed; otherwise the mode of the source file modified by the umask(2) on the destination host is used. The −p option causes rcp to attempt to preserve (duplicate) in its copies the modification times and modes of the source files, ignoring the umask.

If path is not a full path name, it is interpreted relative to your login directory on rhost. A path on a remote host may be quoted (using \, ", or ´) so that the metacharacters are interpreted remotely. 

Rcp does not prompt for passwords; your current local user name must exist on rhost and allow remote command execution via rsh(1C).

Rcp handles third party copies, where neither source nor target files are on the current machine.  Hostnames may also take the form “rname@rhost” to use rname rather than the current user name on the remote host.  The destination hostname may also take the form “rhost.rname” to support destination machines that are running 4.2BSD versions of rcp. 

OPTIONS

If the −r option is specified and any of the source files are directories, rcp copies each subtree rooted at that name; in this case the destination must be a directory.  If the subdirectories do not exist, rcp creates them. 

If the −v option is specified, then file server authentication tokens are sent to the other machine. This happens automatically if the environment variable AUTH is set to “viceii.” By default, the mode and owner of file2 are preserved if it already existed; otherwise the mode of the source file modified by the umask(2) on the destination host is used.

The −p option causes rcp to attempt to preserve (duplicate) in its copies the modification times and modes of the source files, ignoring the umask.

SEE ALSO

cp(1), ftp(1C), rsh(1C), rlogin(1C)

BUGS

Doesn’t detect all cases where the target of a copy might be a file in cases where only a directory should be legal. 
Is confused by any output generated by commands in a .login, .profile, or .cshrc file on the remote host.
If you attempt to make an authenticated connection to a host that does not use authentication, most likely it will not work. This happens if AUTH = vicei when accessing a non-AFS machine.
BSD4.2 cannot talk to BSD4.3.

PRPQs 5799-WZQ/5799-PFF: IBM/4.3  —  Sept 1988