Ubuntu Unleashed 2013 Edition: Covering 12.10 and 13.04, Eighth Edition

SSH Tools

To the surprise of many, OpenSSH actually is comprised of a suite of tools. We have already seen ssh, the Secure Shell command that connects to other machines, and sshd, the SSH server daemon that accepts incoming SSH connections. However, there is also sftp, a replacement for ftp, scp, and rcp.

You should already be familiar with the ftp command because it is the lowest common denominator system for handling FTP file transfers. Like Telnet, though, ftp is unsecure: It sends your data in plain text across the network, and anyone can sniff your packets to pick out a username and password. The SSH replacement, sftp, puts FTP traffic over an SSH link, thus securing it.

The rcp command might be new to you, largely because it is not used ...