--- title: tar: a slop-free alternative to rsync | daily.dev description: A short practical guide showing how to use tar piped over SSH as a simpler alternative to rsync for transferring files between hosts. Covers the key tar flags... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/tar-a-slop-free-alternative-to-rsync-ozhfv7ncb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: tar: a slop-free alternative to rsync | daily.dev og:description: A short practical guide showing how to use tar piped over SSH as a simpler alternative to rsync for transferring files between hosts. Covers the key tar flags... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/tar-a-slop-free-alternative-to-rsync-ozhfv7ncb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/oZHfv7Ncb.png og:image:alt: tar: a slop-free alternative to rsync og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # tar: a slop-free alternative to rsync **[Drew DeVault](https://daily.dev/sources/drewdevault)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A short practical guide showing how to use tar piped over SSH as a simpler alternative to rsync for transferring files between hosts. Covers the key tar flags (-c, -x, -z, -C, -f), explains path handling logic, and shows how to add a progress display using pv. Also mentions a small wrapper tool called xtar that simplifies the workflow. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The one rsync mistake that could destroy your backups](https://daily.dev/posts/the-one-rsync-mistake-that-could-destroy-your-backups-s6biwkbt9) · All Things Open · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [FOBshippingpoint/shittp: Bring your dotfiles to remote machine via SSH](https://daily.dev/posts/fobshippingpoint-shittp-bring-your-dotfiles-to-remote-machine-via-ssh-ekjspay6a) · Hacker News · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [Linux Fu: Improving FTP](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-fu-improving-ftp-zanumd21y) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#ssh](https://daily.dev/tags/ssh) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/tar-a-slop-free-alternative-to-rsync-ozhfv7ncb) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"tar: a slop-free alternative to rsync","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/tar-a-slop-free-alternative-to-rsync-ozhfv7ncb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/tar-a-slop-free-alternative-to-rsync-ozhfv7ncb"},"datePublished":"2026-03-31T12:28:16.688Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T12:42:34.324Z","description":"A short practical guide showing how to use tar piped over SSH as a simpler alternative to rsync for transferring files between hosts. 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