Basic syntax, "options source destination", is similar enough. scp file.bin server: rsync file.bin server: The obvious difference is that rsync defaults

Basic syntax, "options source destination", is similar enough. scp file.bin server: rsync file.bin server: The obvious difference is that rsync defaults to a more unixy no-news-is-good-news output, it will only output errors. To show interactive progress use rsync -vP file.bin server: Use "-e" to set ssh options, just like with scp. Use "-r" to transfer whole directories, just like with scp. But you're likely to use "-a" with rsync instead which is recursive preserving all attributes and timestamps. Another difference is that rsync will resume transfers, which scp can't. It can do sparse transfers reasonably well. It also has more sane security defaults And, as implied by the name, update a remote directory including deletions. Check out "man rsync" for the full story. It's not long after your shell and editor in daily usefulness.