next up previous
Next: Other Sources of Information Up: Introduction to SSH Versions Previous: Managing keys with ssh-agent

Other SSH Features and Tools

While the ability to securely log into a remote machine with a minimum of trouble is nice, SSH will also allow you to execute commands on a remote machine without requiring that you begin a full login session. Simply specify the command you wish to run after the name of the remote host:

mbland@defender
/home/student/mbland -> ssh cambria ls documents/hc/ssh
ssh_dirs_01.txt
ssh_dirs_02.txt
ssh_intro.aux
ssh_intro.dvi
ssh_intro.log
ssh_intro.tex
ssh_intro.tex~

SSH also automatically sets up a remote X-server connection so that you can execute X Window-based programs from the remote machine. Try ``ssh defender netscape'' to test out this feature.

SSH also comes with two file transfer utilities, scp and sftp. scp allows you to quickly and securely transfer files between machines or systems much in the same way you would use the standard cp command:

mbland@defender
/home/student/mbland -> scp cambria:www/home.html .
Transfering cambria:www/home.html -> ./home.html  (4k)
|.............................................................................|
3273 bytes transferred in 0.04 seconds [66.05 kB/sec].

sftp is a replacement for the standard ftp client, providing much of the same functionality with a highly similar interface:

mbland@defender
/home/student/mbland -> sftp cambria
local path  : /home/student/mbland
remote path : /home/student/mbland
sftp>cd programs/wnm/ch12
sftp>ls
../              test03.dat       test10.dat       test_ttf_tree.o
./               test04.dat       test11.dat       ttf_tree-01.gif
Makefile         test05.dat       test12.dat       ttf_tree-02.gif
RCS/             test06.dat       test14.dat       ttf_tree.C
memtester.h      test07.dat       test14.orig      ttf_tree.h
test01.dat       test08.dat       test_ttf_tree    ttf_tree.old
test02.dat       test09.dat       test_ttf_tree.C

sftp>get ttf_tree.C
Transferring /home/student/mbland/programs/wnm/ch12/ttf_tree.C -> /home/
student/mbland/ttf_tree.C  (26k)

|o............................................................................|
|...............................................oOo...........................|
|.............................................................................|
sftp>bye



Michael S. Bland
2000-11-22