Moving files between Unix and Windows systems

At that place are many ways to move files between Unix and Windows. In my listen, they autumn into iii categories -- secure copy (let's non even recollect nearly ftp), shared drives, and file synchronization. Each has its ain advantages.

Secure Copy

For secure copy, nosotros have scp and sftp commands. Native to Unix systems, both commands are available for Windows as well. I use pscp (PuTTY's scp) which you should find in your PuTTY binder (east.g., C:\Program Files\PuTTY or C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY) if you have PuTTY installed. I brand sure the folder is in my Windows search path so that I can access it from any directory and then run commands that piece of work merely like scp on Unix:

C:\User\shs> pscp myfile.txt shs@unixserver:/home/shs

Works like a amuse. The control will ask for your password and motion the file or files specified. Wild cards are acceptable. Merely recall that text files moved from Windows to Unix systems will retain their railroad vehicle returns and those coming in the opposite direction will lack them.

Samba

Some other pick for moving files between Unix and Windows systems it to make a drive or folder bachelor past "sharing" it. Both Unix and Windows take commands for this. To share files between the two types of systems, you tin employ Samba. Samba is an implementation of the SMB/CIFS networking protocols. So it runs on a Unix system and allows Unix directories to be accessed past Windows systems or Windows shares to exist mounted on Unix systems.

To set upward shared directory on a Linux system, yous have to add together a department to your samba configuration file describing what you're sharing and how. You will have different settings depending on what you are sharing and its sensitvity. In full general, home directories should exist bachelor to their owners and public directories available to anybody. All the same, this doesn't hateful that y'all shouldn't limit who can access anything on the server. "Everyone" might mean everyone on a particular subnet or in a item grouping. Other settings in the smb.conf file allow y'all to limit who can admission Samba shares to specific hosts or IP ranges.

Shares set upward in the Samba configuration file (smb.conf) will await like what you see below. Near section labels (e.g., "public") serve equally the mapping name. The /shares/public folder shown below, for example, can be mapped on a Windows system with the command "net use P: \unixhost\public" where P: is an available bulldoze characterization, unixhost is the name of the Unix server, and public is the label we fix in the smb.conf file. The label "homes", however, is a special i in that it tells the Samba service to allow home directories to exist shared. Each user tin can then map his or her own dwelling directory on their Windows systems.

[homes]    annotate = Home Directories    browseable = no    read only = no    create style = 0750  [public]    path = /shares/public    public = yep    writable = yep    create mask = 0777    browseable = yes

Samba also allows you to mount Windows shares on your Unix server. Sometimes it's easier to mount a shared Windows drive, copy the files it needs, and and so unmount the drive than it would be to make this happen from the Windows side.

To mount a Windows share, yous would use a command like this:

mkdir /mnt/datafiles mountain -t smbfs -o username=remuser,countersign=abc123NOT //windowshost/datafiles /mnt/datafiles

In this control, /mnt/datafiles is a mountain bespeak nosotros're setting upward to movement the files we need, remuser is the name of a user recognized past the Windows organization, abc123NOT is his countersign (please use better passwords!), and windowshost is the proper noun of the remote system.

From the Windows side, you can view what is existence mapped and what is being share with the "net utilize" and "net share" commands.

Rsync

Copying files with rsync has the distinct advantage of keen functioning since rsync smartly copies changes in files rather than consummate files whenever that's an option. This means that, if a single byte has been added to the source file, a single byte will exist transferred to the destination.

Rsync can be used to copy files from ane organization to another, but it's meant to go on files synchronized between systems. Yous may exist familiar with using rsync between Unix systems, simply versions of rsync are available to synchronize files between Windows and Unix systems also. Check out Grsync for Windows systems at sourceforge -- http://sourceforge.net/projects/grsync-win/?source=recommended&_test=goal.

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Sandra Henry-Stocker has been administering Unix systems for more than 30 years. She describes herself as "USL" (Unix as a 2d language) but remembers enough English to write books and buy groceries. She lives in the mountains in Virginia where, when not working with or writing about Unix, she'southward chasing the bears abroad from her bird feeders.

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