scp command change using alias

Question

I frequently use

scp -r id@remoteserver_ip:/Data_folder/

to download data a folder from a remote supercom server.

Having to write the same every time is rather tiresome.

Does anybody know easy to use this command using alias? Consider that Data_folder will be changed every time.

Answer 1

You should consider setting up ssh config:

Host myServer
    HostName remoteserver_ip
    User id

And perhaps add a identity file as well to avoid having to type password:

Host myServer
    ...
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/my_id

Now you can write:

scp -r myServer:/something

Of cause you can - as suggested by other answers - add a function to your ~/.bashrc :

my_scp() {
  scp -r myServer:"$1"
}

And then call:

my_scp /something

Answer 2

Alias can't replace a part of a word. You can create a function, though:

myscp () {
    scp -r id@remoteserver_ip:/"$1"/
}

Then, just call myscp Data_folder .

Also, scp (at least on my system) needs the destination folder, too. You can add . as then next parameter to the command in the function, or use "$2" and specify it on the command line when running the function.

Answer 3

You can't setup an alias to take an argument. So you'll have to create a function and then you'll be able to alias scp to that

function super_scp() {
    scp -r id@remoteserver_ip:${1} ${2}
}

alias scp=super_scp

Then you'll be able to use it like:

scp /path/to/folder /destination 

Answer 4

You can make a bash file in one of your $PATH folders.

#! /bin/bash
scp -r id@remoteserver_ip:"$1" "$2"

Let's call the script myscp.

Instead of writing the whole line you wrote, you can write

myscp /home/file.txt /home/file2.txt