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Useful Custom Commands

This is list of custom commands that users of WinSCP found useful. You are encouraged to add your own. Also check the built-in examples.

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Archiving

Tar/Gzip

tar -xvzf --directory="!?&Extract to which directory:?.!" "!"

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tar -czvf "!?&Enter an Archive Name:?archive.tgz!"
  --exclude="!?&Exclude files matching pattern:?*.exe!"
  !&

Zip

To unpack to the current directory:

unzip "!"

To unpack to an alternate directory:

unzip -d "!?&Extract to directory:?.!" "!"

To create an archive:

zip -r "!?&Enter an Archive Name:?archive.zip!" !&

Rar

rar a -ep "!?&Enter an Archive Name:?archive.rar!" !&

Quick Deleting

Use following command to quickly delete large directory structures:

rm -f -r "!"

The same command can ask for confirmation before deleting:

test "!?Do you really want to delete ?no!" == "yes" && rm -rf !&

Changing Ownership

Use following command if current protocol does not allow changing ownership:

chown "!?New owner:?!" !&

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To change group use chgrp instead of chown. Or use following command:

chown "!?New owner (and group: user.group):!" !&

URL Address of Selected File

Example shows how to launch simple PHP script that maps file path to URL.

echo '<?="http://www.example.com".
str_replace("home/user/public_html", "~user", "'`pwd`'").
"/!\n"?>' | php -q

Hints:

  • Note that the above should be entered as one line!
  • Do not forget to check custom command option Show results in terminal or Copy results to clipboard, otherwise you will not get the results. You may also want to use the command for directories, check Apply to directories too.
  • For your particular use, just replace http://www.example.com with right URL prefix, home/user/public_html with right path prefix and ~user with right URL replacement (it can even be empty in some cases).
  • If you do mapping like above, i.e. for server containing multiple user’s homepages, you can make it universal by replacing user with '`whoami`'.

Another example using shell commands only, in case PHP is unavailable.

echo 'http://www.example.com'`pwd`'!' | sed s#home/lgtngstk/public_html#~user#

Templates

cp /path/to/template.html "!?&New HTML file:?!"

Viewing End of a File (log)

tail "!"

You may specify further how much to transfer, e.g.

tail --lines 2000 "!"

Check custom command option Show results in terminal.

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find . -name "!?Search for files:?!"

Check custom command option Show results in terminal.

Searching for a text/string within a directory

grep -H -r "!?Search for text:?!" *  | cut -d: -f1

Check custom command option Show results in terminal.

Backup

Backup a File with Current Date and Time

cp ! $(echo "!" | sed "s/\..*$//").$(date '+%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M').$(echo ! | awk -F"." '{ print $NF }')

Rename a File with Current Date and Time

mv ! $(echo "!" | sed "s/\..*$//").$(date '+%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M').$(echo ! | awk -F"." '{ print $NF }')

Remote Transfer (FXP)

Use following remote custom command to transfer selected remote files to an another server:

scp -p -r !& !?Username:?!@!?Host:?!:!?Destination path:?!

You may want to hard-code the Username and Host, if you work with one destination server only. Or you can use a single prompt for both (possibly even for Destination Path) to keep the flexibility, yet to reduce number of prompts:

scp -p -r !& !?Username@Host:?!:!?Destination path:?!

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Note that you need to ensure you can connect and authenticate to the destination server without any prompts:

  • Connect at least once from an interactive terminal (such as PuTTY SSH client) to verify the destination server host key.
  • Use for example Agent forwarding to forward your private key to the destination server for authentication.

File Compare

WinMerge

Select Local command type.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe" /e /x /u "!" "!^!"

Replace C:\Program Files (x86) with C:\Program Files on 32-bit system.

Arguments:

  • /e - Enables you to close WinMerge with a single Esc key press;
  • /x - Closes WinMerge (after displaying an information dialog) when you start a comparison of identical files;
  • /u - Prevents WinMerge from adding either path (left or right) to the Most Recently Used (MRU) list.

Last modified: by Petr