Copying files across computers using SSH and MAC OS X Terminal?

Question

I'm trying to copy my .profile, .rvm and .ssh folders/files to a new computer and I know how to use the `cp` and `ssh` commands but I'm not sure how to use them in order to transfer files from one computer to another. Any help would be great, thanks!

Answer 1

This is a broad question with some equally broad answers. My first question is why you need to do this if both computers are able to be next to each other (the standard way to copy a profile is to use Migration Assistant to move all or part of a profile from one computer to another).

If that is unavailable and you are trying to, let's say, move just these segments, you ssh (i prefer sftp) to the target computer and ftp the files to the new profile (preferably in a zip file). once you get to the new profile, i would, using an admin account (and not the profile you want to edit) to go into that profile, delete (save them first) the profile, rvm and ssh items and then unzip the zip file. at this point, you need to make sure that the acl on the new items matches the acl of other items (using the 'info' command is possible) and make sure the owner is the same as the other files for the new items).

overall this is pretty dangerous unless you know what you are doing. I repeat my suggestion to use 'migration assistant' to create a new profile on the new computer and them move the remaining files that that profile will use.