Solaris 10 SFTP to get a directory

I'd use 'scp' instead of 'sftp':

scp -r remote_server:/test .

                                              

1:

I am not sure if sftp can download directories. Instead use

scp -r username@servername:/test /path/to/mydir

put server ip address if servername is not mapped to ip address in dns or in /etc/hosts

RBEIMS:

For some reason, every time I try to use scp -r instead of SFTP I get the error:

unknown user 70273

I find this is odd because I am using the same username/password/key as when I successfully authenticate with the server using SFTP.  I am wondering if I am being restricted on the server side to only use SFTP.  Is it at all possible to use sftp with a script to do this?

I noticed now that SFTP doesn't need a shell in the other side to properly connect. Probably the server is not configured to give you a shell, so your scp fails and sftp doesn't.
You can call sftp with a bacth file:
sftp -b batch_file

Your batch file should contain something like:
chdir /test
get *

But I did not have a chance to test this. Please test it and let me know!

tried the batch script.

The script contained:
cd /test
lcd /my/local/dir
get *

when it ran it gave the following output:
Fetching /test to /test
Cannot download a directory: /test

Apparently the sftp client doesn't support recursive copy. In this link they suggest to use scp to do recursive copies.
http://www.cae.wisc.edu/linux-sftp

As you can't do this, I think that you only have one option:
To ask the system administrator to give you a shell so that you can use scp to copy the files. There are restricted shells that allow only the copies of files, maybe you could suggest that if they are too concerned about security.
http://dragontoe.org/rssh/

Thanks,

One thing that I just tried was using winSCP on windows and that program can login, so now I am thinking that I must have a shell account on the remote side.  

  Are there any known differences to how unix scp and winSCP handles authentication?

is ftp an option for you? If yes then you can use tools like wget with recursive dir copy

on windows you can do from command line. please see

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Internet_Email/File_Sharing/FTP/Q_23851359.html

Maybe winscp uses sftp, and does the magic by itself (copying the files recursively). You could also try to do it the same way:
Use ls and verify the files you need to copy and then copy them one by one. Maybe it could be done using a script.

Have a look at rsync e.g.


Push:
/opt/rsync/bin/rsync -optlg --rsh=/usr/bin/ssh --rsync-path='/opt/rsync/bin/rsync' --recursive --force --delete-after /test/ 129.168.0.123:/test

Pull:
/opt/rsync/bin/rsync -optlg --rsh=/usr/bin/ssh --rsync-path='/opt/rsync/bin/rsync' --recursive --force --delete-after  129.168.0.123:/test/ /test