vcp [1] is a cp(1) with progress bar using ncurses. It might be a good tool when you have machine used to maintain something and this would give you some visual progress for file/directory copying from a distance.
I need to reduce the buffer size (-b) or it would copy too fast and can't see the progress.
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Written in C by Daniel Bryan, licensed the BSD License
Recorded with vcp 2.2
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[1]: http://members.iinet.net.au/~lynx/vcp/