Automate scp file transfer using a shell script

Instead of hardcoding password in a shell script, use SSH keys, its easier and secure.

$ scp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa *.derp [email protected]:/path/to/target/directory/

assuming your private key is at ~/.ssh/id_rsa and the files you want to send can be filtered with *.derp

To generate a public / private key pair :

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa

The above will generate 2 files, ~/.ssh/id_rsa (private key) and ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub (public key)

To setup the SSH keys for usage (one time task) : Copy the contents of ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub and paste in a new line of ~devops/.ssh/authorized_keys in myserver.org server. If ~devops/.ssh/authorized_keys doesn't exist, feel free to create it.

A lucid how-to guide is available here.

#!/usr/bin/expect -f

# connect via scp
spawn scp "[email protected]:/home/santhosh/file.dmp" /u01/dumps/file.dmp
#######################
expect {
  -re ".*es.*o.*" {
    exp_send "yes\r"
    exp_continue
  }
  -re ".*sword.*" {
    exp_send "PASSWORD\r"
  }
}
interact

http://blogs.oracle.com/SanthoshK/entry/automate_linux_scp_command