Question

I am trying to transfer a file to a remote Unix server using scp. On that server, there is a service which polls the target directory to detect incoming files for processing. I would like to ensure that the polling service does not pick up new files before the copy is complete. Is there a way of doing that?

My file transfer process is a simple scp command embedded in a larger Java program. Ideally, a solution which did not involve changing the Jana would be best (for reasons involving change control processes).

Answer 1

• You can scp the file to a different (/tmp) directory and move the
  file via ssh after transfer is complete. The different directory needs to be on the same partition as the final destination directory otherwise there will be a copy operation and you’ll face a similar problem. Another service on the destination machine can do this move operation.

• You can copy the file as hidden (prefix the filename with .) and copy, then move

• If you can modify the polling service, you can check active scp processes and ignore files matching scp arguments.

• You can check for open files with lsof +d $directory and ignore them in the polling server