Listing: movein.sh

#!/bin/sh

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
echo "Usage: `basename $0` hostname"
exit
fi

cd ~/.skel
tar zhcf - . | ssh $1 "tar zpvxf -"

Call it movein.sh, and stick it in your ~/bin directory. Now create a ~/.skel directory, and make symlinks to all of the files you'd like to copy to remote servers:

rob@caligula:~/.skel$ ls -al
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 6 rob staff 204 Sep 9 20:52 .
drwxr-xr-x 37 rob staff 1258 Sep 9 20:57 ..
lrwxr-xr-x 1 rob staff 11 Sep 9 20:52 .bash_login -> ../.bash_login
lrwxr-xr-x 1 rob staff 11 Sep 9 20:52 .bashrc -> ../.bashrc
lrwxr-xr-x 1 rob staff 11 Sep 9 20:52 .my.cnf -> ../.my.cnf
lrwxr-xr-x 1 rob staff 11 Sep 9 20:52 .pinerc -> ../.pinerc
drwxr-xr-x 3 rob staff 102 Sep 9 20:51 .ssh
lrwxr-xr-x 1 rob staff 9 Sep 9 20:52 .vimrc -> ../.vimrc
lrwxr-xr-x 1 rob staff 6 Sep 9 21:27 bin -> ../bin

Note that ~/.skel/.ssh is a special case: it's a directory, not a symlink. DO NOT SYMLINK YOUR ~/.ssh TO ~/.skel! The last thing you need is to copy your private ssh key all over the place; that's what the ssh-agent is for (see ). Instead, make a directory called ~/.skel/.ssh and make a symlink like this:

rob@caligula:~/.skel$ cd .ssh
rob@caligula:~/.skel/.ssh$ ls -al
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 3 rob staff 102 Sep 9 20:51 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 rob staff 204 Sep 9 20:52 ..
lrwxr-xr-x 1 rob staff 26 Sep 9 20:51 authorized_keys2 -> 
  ../../.ssh/id_dsa.pub

This is a link called authorized_keys2, and it points to your live public key. You are using public key ssh connections, right? If not, consult .

Now when this script runs, it will copy the contents of ~/.skel to the host you specify on the command line, straight into your home directory. The h flag to tar means "copy these symlinks as if they were files, not symlinks," so you end up with a copy of the contents of each link on the remote end. If you make changes to your local copy, just run the script again, and it will overwrite everything on the remote end.

Only include the .ssh directory as mentioned above if you'd like to be able to log into the remote host automatically, without a password. As long as your local machine's keys are kept secure, there is no inherent security risk in leaving extra authorized_keys2 files lying around. That's what public key cyptography is all about.