suggestion: atomic scp transactions

Just a suggestion.  Is there a way
to make the default scp transfer behavior
be more atomic (i.e. "instantaneous")? 

For example, when transferring a big cgi
file or collection of dependent modules,
the web server experiences a period of
down-time. 

Would it be possible to separate the network
transfer lag from the critical filesystem changes? 

I know this can be implemented with 3 lines
of code (transfer to temporary directory and
then recursively copy into desired location),
but I would much rather type in a flag. 

Or, alternatively, maybe some sort of "tar"
transfer mode like 

aap install PREFIX=scp_tarmode://somewhere// 

Or, maybe setting $SCP to be something like
"tar cf - . | ssh somewhere 'cd destination; tar xf -'" 

If such a variation would work, maybe it
could at least be added to the documentation?
(I would like to somehow volunteer in this way
or another way, or we can just make Bram do it <=== joke :=) ). 

Regards,
Scott 




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