Hello, i'm looking for a good, simple sftp client that can sync to my sftp server at the office.

I want to basically set it up as a backup program and need to have everything automated.

Can you point me in the right direction?
-Thanks

sftp works pretty well. If you set up public key authentication, you can have it run automatically.

As he implied, sftp (& scp, both part of ssh pkg) are in fact cli tools anyway.
Just because you can put a GUI over the top eg Filezilla, certainly doesn't mean you have to use one ...
scp is a simpler cmd to use/automate.

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Just to add to the other posts I would suggest using public/private keys if not already using them.
If you actually want to "sync" the files with your office you can use rsync as another option.

The problem with rsync is it is limited by the length of directories or filenames. Sometimes it misses whole directories because of this and I don't want to have to worry about this.

How do I go about setting up a public/private key? I have looked into it but just don't understand it well.

Also, it's funny I was looking for an sftp program and the program recommended to me is actually called sftp. Ironic that this is not the norm. It's like asking for a web browser and finding out the best one is called Web Browser. : )

I think the term SFTP actually comes from the program sftp, which is file transfers over ssh. Setting up a public/private keypair is usually pretty easy, but depends on the sending and receiving system.

This site gives a pretty simple howto:

http://rcsg-gsir.imsb-dsgi.nrc-cnrc....et/node31.html

The ssh pkg/tool actually consists of (at least) 4 parts
ssh - client
sshd - server
scp - remote cp over ssh
sftp - ftp over ssh

ie if you have the ssh rpms
libssh2-1.2.2-7.el6_2.3.x86_64
openssh-5.3p1-81.el6.x86_64
openssh-clients-5.3p1-81.el6.x86_64
openssh-server-5.3p1-81.el6.x86_64

the you'll have all the tools. Its really one tool with multiple options/personalities
See chap 9 http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo..._6_deployment/

Step by step key gen & setup http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/11/...n-ssh-copy-id/

i think like others mentioned you will have to set up public key encryption to allow passwordless access while ssh-ing into remote systems.

after you set that up, it should be fairly trivial to make a bash script to cp files. we can help if you explain what you mean by sync.

OK, I want to have it so that the computer will backup files to the sftp server. Sync means that if i delete a file on my computer, the file is deleted on the server. If i add a new file or change an existing one, only the changes/new files get uploaded. Hence, the server is sync'd with my home computer. That way I can use it as a backup.

Is there a better way?

In that case, you want the rsync tool http://linux.die.net/man/1/rsync.
If you're worried about security, you can require rsync to use ssh transport; see the many many threads on this subject.

I have tried rsync but it doesn't get all the files. Like if the file has a long filename or there are a bunch of directories, rsync will miss that stuff.

I'm just looking for something that can get everything.

most of the time sync'ing means taking the newest version of the file and overwriting the old version.
(e.g.- doc-1.txt on the server has a newer datestamp than the doc-1.txt file on the fone, then the file on the fone gets overwritten; song-1.mp3 has a newer date on the mp3-player than the one on the pc, then song-1.mp3 on the pc gets overwritten with the version from the mp3-player)

i think what you are actually referring to is a 1-way backup. rsync is probably your best bet so finding out what parameters you should use to correct your previous issues would yield you better mileage.

but if you are steadfast against using rsync then something like this this mite work:maybe run this every hour or so.