Transferring Files SSH SCP Error Message: 'Stdin: is not a tty'

Question

I am using a Macbook SSH terminal and generated RSA key pairs and uploaded remote id_rsa.pub with approved permissions. I can connect with remote Apache web server. I can create, open, move, modify and on preliminary inspection can manage files on the web server, no problem ... and generate no error messages.

Surprisingly I can not scp a folder nor document from my desktop to the remote server. Nor can I scp a folder or document from the remote server to my desktop. Each time I receive the error message:

stdin: is not a tty

The scp command to or from the remote web server does not work with either absolute or relative file location references.

My standard syntax looks like this:

From local host:

scp -rp ~/Desktop/foldername [email protected]:~/public_html

From remote host:

scp -rp [email protected]:~/public_html/foldername ~/Desktop/

It appears to be an issue with the stdin: is not a tty error message.

What's going on?

If this error is preventing the file transfers, how do I resolve the stdin: is not a tty?

Solution 1

The reason for this is that one of the login scripts on the target server is using stty... to set up terminal characteristics. The command fails when it doesn't have a tty, ie when you connect with scp.

The solution is to protect the stty so that it runs only when an interactive session is present. There are a number of ways to do this; here are some examples for bash/sh type shells:

Ugly:

stty ... >/dev/null 2>&1

Works for me:

test -n "$PS1" && stty ...

Recommended elsewhere on SE:

# Check for a bash login shell
case $- in
  *i*) stty ... ;;
esac

Solution 2

I am not sure if it matters on OSX sshd implementation but on some systems, when you don't have a tty, the implied home directory with ~/ convention, may not expand and you may get some unexpected results. I know it is not a sure thing but please try with full path names, instead of ~/ construct.

Comments

[user2217265]

Yes I tried full path and every permutation, same error with rsync.

[user2914606]

please edit your post to include that information.

[n.st]

Oops, this one's old! My suggestion still applies, though, if you haven't found a solution yet.

[mikeserv]

When you first login to ssh - as I take it your'e executing scp from within the ssh session - use ssh ${opts} -t. Or even -tt if needed.

[user2217265]

It seems that even providing a full path, the remote server does not recognize the location of the local directory and file and oddly offers a reference to being unable to locate the local directory and file ... giving a url that refers to the 'remote' root. Weird and frustrating.

[user2217265]

Does not seem to work with absolute url. Remote server gives error essentially unable to locate the local directory and file to copy.

[n.st]

@user2217265 Could you please add the exact command and error message to your question?