I'm new to Python so forgive me if this is basic, I've searched but can't find an answer. I'm trying to convert a Perl script into Python (3.x) which connects to a remote server and copies the files in a given directory to the local machine. Integrity of the transfer is paramount and there are several steps built-in to ensure a complete and accurate transfer. The first step is to get a complete listing of the files to be passed to rsync. The Perl script has the following lines to accomplish this: @dir_list = `ssh user@host 'find $remote_dir -type f -exec /bin/dirname {} \\;'`; @file_list = `ssh user@host 'find $remote_dir -type f -exec /bin/basename {} \\;'`; The two lists are then joined to create $full_list. Rather than open two separate ssh instances I'd like to open one and use os.walk to get the information using: for remdirname, remdirnames, remfilesnames in os.walk(remotedir): for remfilename in remfilesnames: remfulllist.append(os.path.join(remdirname, remfilename)) Thank you for any help you can provide.