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Ian Hincks
Asked: 2012-07-27 12:20:46 +0800 CST

Find most recent scp files

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A few weeks ago I scp'd some files to my computer from a friend's computer for future use. Now I want to use those files, but I can't remember where I put them and I have looked all over. Is there some sort of history of the scp's made into my computer?

I have looked in /var/log/auth.log with no success.

ssh

1 Answers

  1. I have 2 suggestions:

    1) Check you bash history

    This can be done by opening the file ~/.bash_history with e.g. Gedit (or any other text editor you prefer) and searching for the command scp so as to see where you chose to save those files.

    2) Find your files with a search utility

    If the 1st suggestion doesn't work because you use very frequently the terminal and so these entries have been overwritten I would suggest either using the command find or the command locate. In any case, you have to remember the filenames of the files, or at least part of them.

    I know the locate command better myself and I find it quicker, so I will describe on how to do it using it.

    First of all, open a terminal by hitting Ctrl+Alt+T and type in:

    sudo updatedb

    and then give

    locate *thecharactersIknow*

    where thecharactersIknow is the part of the filename that you remember. For example, if you remember hi_there while the real filename is hello_hi_there.jpg, then you should give

    locate *hi_there*

    Also, if you are sure that the files are stored under your home directory, you can filter your results, like this:

    locate *hi_there* | grep $USER

    or similarly...

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