USING RSYNC TO TRANSFER DATA FILES Assume you logged into Leuschner and are in the radiolab home directory and you want to transfer the whole subdirectory /home/radiolab/supernova , including subdirectories, to your home subdirectory /home/myself on the ugastro computer in berkeley, which is /home/myself . You have two choices: scp -r /home/radiolab/supernova myself@uglab.berkeley.edu:' copies everything. the -r option means 'recursive', i.e. that it transfers not only files but the contents of subdirectories. This command copies all files and subdirectories, whether they have already been copied or not. In contrast, rsync copies only those files and subdirectories that don't already exist and, also, those files that have been modified since they were copied. This is known as an 'incremental backup'. This is a really handy tool, not only for transferring data files but also for keeping backups. All you do is replace the "scp -r" above with "rsync -a" . But if you also add the "-n --progress --stats" as we do below you get a running list of what's being transferred and summary statistics at the end. The -n option means "don't actually transfer files"--do a "dry run". This allows you to make sure you haven't made a mistake in the command. It lists the files it would have transferred and gives summary statistics at the end. If you like what you saw, re-run it without the -n. rsync -a -n --progress --stats /home/radiolab/supernova myself@uglab.berkeley.edu:'