WinSCP - Synchronize host and remote

By the use of a script, it's possible to ask WinSCP to synchronize your host and remote machine i.e. if a file is newer on the host, copy it to your remote server and the opposite.

If a file has been added to your host, copy it to your remote server and vice versa.

I'm using such script for making a full backup of some of my folders to my Synology. I've also used it for years to deploy this very blog, before switching to GitHub Actions.

Two more WinSCP scripts on this blog: downloading files with a specific extension recursively and opening a WinSCP session straight from KeePass.

The script​

open ftp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@HOST_OR_IP:PORT/

option transfer ascii?

lcd "C:\Christophe"?
cd /Christophe?

synchronize remote -preservetime -transfer=automatic -filemask="|.git/"?

close

exit

How to use​

1. Save the previous script as, f.i., c:\temp\synchronize.txt
2. Edit the script and specify:
   1. in case of need, replace ftp by sftp
   2. USERNAME: the FTP username
   3. PASSWORD: the password associated to this account
   4. HOST_OR_IP: the FTP host name or its IP
   5. PORT: the port to use (21 for an FTP connection f.i.)
   6. The local folder where your files are stored (line lcd "C:\Christophe")
   7. The remote folder from where the files should be copied (line cd /Christophe), can be the ftp root or any subfolder
3. Start a DOS session
4. Run cd \temp
5. Run winscp.com from there: type "c:\program files (x86)\WinSCP\WinSCP.com" /script="c:\temp\synchronize.txt"

If everything is correctly set up, WinSCP will start a session terminal and will start the synchronization.

More info​

More info about the Synchronize verb of WinSCP: https://winscp.net/eng/docs/scriptcommand_synchronize.

• If files/folders are already there, don't do anything.
• If there are new files/folders, copy them.
• If files/folders are no more on the local drive, remove them from the remote server.

So local is the master.

Local / Remote / Both​

See the line synchronize remote.

Choose remote, local or both:

• When the first parameter is local, changes from remote directories are applied to local directories.
• When the first parameter is remote, changes from the local directories are applied to the remote directories.
• When the first parameter is both, both local and remote directories can be modified (source).