Ports for ssh, scp, rsync

Original post on my blog, happy to include feedback!
Cover: Théophile Steinlen, via Clawmarks

Have to look¹ this² up³ every time⁴:

Assuming you're connected to a machine like

ssh [e-mail]

and want to transfer files afterwards, you'll likely update your recent command to

scp [e-mail]:/my/folder/my.file dest/folder

or

rsync -a [e-mail]:/my/folder dest/

for copying said files. So far, so good.

When relying on ports, this gets way more complicated due to differing parameter styles for each command which are

# `-p[port]`
ssh -p222 [e-mail]

# `-P [port]`
scp -P 222 [e-mail]:/my/folder/my.file dest/folder

# set port on custom remote shell
rsync -a -e "ssh -p222" [e-mail]:/my/folder/my.file dest/folder

(Note that rsync has more options for defining TCP daemon ports with --port=[PORT] which is probably not what you want)

You're welcome!

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1. ssh manpage ↩

2. scp manpage ↩

3. rsync manpage ↩

4. Find offline documentation tools on Stackoverflow … or use Dash on Macs and Zeal man docsets on Windows ↩