sftp Vs scp

[Ben Lindstrom]

Corinna Vinschen wrote on 1/24/19 6:28 AM:
> What's missing in sftp is a drop in replacement mode for copying to
> the remote server, i.e. this should work out of the box:
>
>    $ sftp -rp local_dir server:path
>
> But, alas:
>
>    ssh: Could not resolve hostname local_dir: Name or service not known
>
> If sftp had this mode, I would alias scp=sftp and be done with it.
>
If memory serves the argument was "if we are calling it an ftp client 
then it should act like an ftp client."  And sadly most ftp clients 
don't provide a command-line push UI which is why I abandoned my patch.

I know Damien Miller about a year or so later asked if I had the patch 
still, but by that point I had already left the project due to time 
constrains and deleted all my local code.  So maybe if presented again 
with something more "ftpish" it could be accepted:

sftp -rp -U /path/to/transfer  [user@]server:path

Description:

-U    upload a local file or directory (if -r is used) to the remotely 
server and path.


Damien, Darren?  Does that seem like a reasonable thing that may be 
accepted upstream for sftp?

I know it isn't a "UI replacement" but it at least provides a more 
complete UI for phasing people off of scp.

Ben