Transfer files between local machine and EC2: scp, rsync

Pre-requisites and installation

No pre-requisites or installation required. Both programs are already installed in the EC2 (and in most unix environments).

Usage

Using scp or rsync lets you transfer files from one location to another. rsync is better when you are transferring lots of files or large files (can pick up from where you left off if sync gets disconnected). scp is fine for small or just a few files. Below are some hints for using rsync, but scp acts in a similar manner. The argument -r is useful for recursively grabbing all files in a directory. Try man rsync or man scp in the EC2 to view the manual for the two commands.

1. Transfer set of fastq files from EC2 to the current directory of your local machine (from your local machine):

    cd target_directory
    rsync -r <username>@tool.archive.data.humancellatlas.org:/path/to/file/*.fastq.gz /localmachine/path/to/file
   

2. To transfer files from your local machine to EC2, simply flip the order of the arguments:

    rsync /localmachine/path/to/file <username>@tool.archive.data.humancellatlas.org:/EC2/path/to/file