Configuring Additional File Transfer Functions
Configuring a Router to Use rsh and rcp
FC-251
Cisco IOS Configuration Fundamentals Configuration Guide, Release 12.1
The following example executes the “ls -a” command in the home directory of the user sharon on
mysys.cisco.com using rsh:
Router# enable
Router# rsh mysys.cisco.com /user sharon ls -a
.
..
.alias
.cshrc
.emacs
.exrc
.history
.login
.mailrc
.newsrc
.oldnewsrc
.rhosts
.twmrc
.xsession
jazz
Router#
Configuring a Router to Use rcp
The rcp copy commands rely on the rsh server (or daemon) on the remote system. To copy files using
rcp, you do not need to create a server for file distribution, as you do with TFTP. You need only to have
access to a server that supports the remote shell (rsh). (Most UNIX systems support rsh.) Because you
are copying a file from one place to another, you must have read permission on the source file and write
permission on the destination file. If the destination file does not exist, rcp creates it for you.
Although our rcp implementation emulates the functions of the UNIX rcp implementation—copying
files among systems on the network—our command syntax differs from the UNIX rcp command syntax.
Our rcp support offers a set of copy commands that use rcp as the transport mechanism. These rcp copy
commands are similar in style to our TFTP copy commands, but they offer an alternative that provides
faster performance and reliable delivery of data. These improvements are possible because the rcp
transport mechanism is built on and uses the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
stack, which is connection-oriented. You can use rcp commands to copy system images and
configuration files from the router to a network server and vice versa.
You can also enable rcp support to allow users on remote systems to copy files to and from the router.

Configuring the Router to Accept rcp Requests from Remote Users

To configure the Cisco IOS software to support incoming rcp requests, use the following commands in
global configuration mode:
To disable the software from supporting incoming rcp requests, use the noip rcmd rcp-enable
command.
Command Purpose
Step1 ip rcmd remote-host local-username {ip-address |
host} remote-username [enable [level]]
Create an entry in the local authentication database
for each remote user who is allowed to execute rcp
commands.
Step2 ip rcmd rcp-enable Enable the software to support incoming rcp requests.