Configuring SFTP File Transfer in MobaXterm: Automatically Copy Files to/from the /tmp Folder

In this article, we will discuss how to configure an SFTP session in MobaXterm and set up automatic file transfers to and from the /tmp folder on a remote device.

Prerequisites

To follow along with this article, you will need:

1. MobaXterm installed on your local machine.
2. Access to a remote device with SFTP enabled.

Configuring an SFTP Session

To configure an SFTP session in MobaXterm, follow these steps:

1. Open MobaXterm and click on the "Session" button in the top left corner.
2. In the "Session settings" window, select "SFTP" from the dropdown menu.
3. Enter the hostname or IP address of the remote device in the "Remote host" field.
4. Enter your username and password in the respective fields.
5. Click on the "Advanced SSH settings" button.
6. In the "Advanced SSH settings" window, check the box next to "Use private key" and browse to the location of your private key file.
7. Click "OK" to close the "Advanced SSH settings" window.
8. Click "OK" to close the "Session settings" window and establish the SFTP session.

Setting Up Automatic File Transfers

To set up automatic file transfers to and from the /tmp folder on the remote device, follow these steps:

1. In the MobaXterm terminal window, navigate to the local directory containing the files you want to transfer.
2. Enter the following command to create a symbolic link to the /tmp folder on the remote device:

ln -s sftp://username@remote_host:/tmp/ ~/tmp

Replace "username" with your username on the remote device and "remote_host" with the hostname or IP address of the remote device.

3. Verify that the symbolic link has been created by listing the contents of your home directory:

ls -la ~

You should see a new directory called "tmp" that is linked to the /tmp folder on the remote device.

4. To automatically copy files to the /tmp folder on the remote device, simply move them into the "tmp" directory on your local machine.
5. To automatically copy files from the /tmp folder on the remote device, create a script that uses the scp command to transfer the files. For example, the following script will transfer all files with a ".txt" extension from the /tmp folder on the remote device to your local "tmp" directory:

#!/bin/bash
scp username@remote_host:/tmp/*.txt ~/tmp

Replace "username" with your username on the remote device and "remote_host" with the hostname or IP address of the remote device.

6. Save the script as a .sh file and make it executable using the following command:

chmod +x script.sh

7. Schedule the script to run at regular intervals using a tool like cron.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed how to configure an SFTP session in MobaXterm and set up automatic file transfers to and from the /tmp folder on a remote device. By creating a symbolic link to the /tmp folder and using the scp command in a script, you can easily transfer files to and from the remote device without manually initiating the transfers.

References

• MobaXterm documentation: https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/documentation.html
• SFTP documentation: https://www.ssh.com/ssh/sftp/
• Symbolic links documentation: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/ln-invocation.html
• scp command documentation: https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/scp.1.html
• Cron documentation: https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/cron.8.html