Copying Dirs EnMasse With LE/KODI

1st Official Post

    I want to copy a buttload of directories from one drive to another.. Right now, I connect with Winblows File Manager and copy the files from one HD to another on the LE/KODI machine..

    But it ties up my Winblows machine and is slow as mole's asses in January...

    Can I either SSH into the KODI/LE box and do a bulk copy?? Or even thru Kodi???

    Thanx


    ADDITIONAL INFO
    OK, I was able to SSH in from my winblows machine and use the CP -R command to copy whole directories... But when I log out of SSH, I assume the CP command will cease??? Forgive me, it's been decades since I played with any flavor of Linux...

    Edited once, last by michale32086: Additional info.... (August 20, 2020 at 9:31 PM).

    LibreELEC:~ # which screen

    /storage/.kodi/addons/virtual.system-tools/bin/screen

    LibreELEC:~ # which rsync

    /storage/.kodi/addons/virtual.network-tools/bin/rsync

    LibreELEC:~ #

    use rsync -av instead of cp -r. You get far better controls for resuming and status details. See screen manual to avoid having ssh connection open.

    • Official Post
    Quote from michale32086

    I want to copy a buttload of directories from one drive to another..

    Disconnect the drive from the Kodi device, and connect it directly/internally to the main PC, if you were using a slow network connection before.

    Quote from michale32086

    But it ties up my Winblows machine and is slow as mole's asses in January..

    Yeah, that's not really LibreELEC/Kodi's problem, is it?

    So how slow are moles in January? How much MB/s speed? (MB=MoleButt..)

    Quote from Klojum

    So how slow are moles in January? How much MB/s speed? (MB=MoleButt..)

    He is copying from one local drive to another or to network share. cp -r. So it is zero byte/character per second speed.

    If copy goes to network share, then it is Wifi or butt load :) of videos. Moles are sleeping in January. Molasses is not. It is up, running and ready to take over Boston.

    Edited once, last by tokul (August 21, 2020 at 6:46 AM).

    You guys crack me up.. :D

    OK let me go a little more in depth.. My son is a commercial fisherman in Alaska.. He is home for another week or so and wants me to copy the entire contents of my KODI server onto a 5TB Portable USB3 Drive...

    So, I have a 4TB and a 2TB 3.5" SATA Drive and I plug the 5TB portable into the USB of the KODI Server and am copying remotely from the Winblows machine.. I am dealing mostly SSH now since I (somewhat) got the hang of it.. I have discovered that, if I try to open up 2 SSH windows and start 2 different CP processes, only one of the CP function actually works. The other CP function just sits there...

    If I could open up an CMD/CONSOLE window directly on the KODI/LE server, I think that would solve my problems.. I could initiate a CP process without using the Winblows machine at all...

    Is that possible??

    • Official Post

    Saying 'Winblows' once is already "meh", saying time after time really doesn't make it funnier. On the contrary.

    Just use the correct terms. And if you don't like the Microsoft OS, why not use something different, such as a Linux OS.

    Quote from michale32086

    Is that possible??

    You can SSH into your LE box remotely (if SSH is enabled).

    Quote from michale32086

    If I could open up an CMD/CONSOLE window directly on the KODI/LE server, I think that would solve my problems.. I could initiate a CP process without using the Windows machine at all...

    Is that possible??

    ssh connection, start screen, run cp or rsync. Not having direct console on the system was never a problem for penguin types. If stuff is not broken.

    cp has -v option to do verbose copy and show some progress. Rsync is still better. If you want more visual tools, "system tools" package has "mc" command too.

    Your bottleneck is USB throughput. You might check if your media server got USB3 ports and whether you are not CPU bound during copy. You would get serious speed loss, if you are on USB 2.

    ext3/4 file systems can be read on Windows with freely available tools or just by getting cd bootable Linux (system rescue cd/Ubuntu/whatever floats your boat). I don't see if your media server is x86 system or some ARM kit. Live booting other Linux might not be an option.

    Edited 4 times, last by tokul (August 21, 2020 at 12:50 PM).

    OK I saw MC, but that really doesn't do what I need..

    rsync looks promising, but my gods.. all the options.. :D

    What I want to do is be able to use a cp-esque command that will automatically not copy and skip existing files... What would be the option for that with rsync??

    Thanx to all for all the help..

    Quote from michale32086

    Never mind.. --existing-files :D

    Thanx again to all for the help... :D

    rsync -av does not transfer existing files, if destination has identical data. It is not cp and it should not be used to transfer files to directory, which already has other unrelated data. rsync will allow you to put all your data on target file system. Once you have data there, rename and move operations are relatively inexpensive and fast.