Parece que o rsync é definitivamente o que você está procurando. Você não precisa configurar um 'servidor rsync' para copiar arquivos de uma máquina para outra. O Rsync suporta a cópia de arquivos através de SFTP (Transferência de Arquivos SSH) que a maioria das caixas de linux já habilitaram (se não forem desativadas manualmente).
Veja para mais detalhes:
Whether you want to backup your data, distribute files securely or mirror your working documents over the internet from the office to home, between computers on your local network, or from your computer to your web server, rsync can get the job done. Today we'll use rsync to mirror folders between a Mac and PC over a secure connection at the command line.
Rsync is free (as in speech) and cross platform, meaning it syncs files between operating systems (Windows/Cygwin, Mac OS, Linux); it works over ssh so it's encrypted and secure; unlike FTP it's incremental, so only the parts of changed files are transferred, not whole files, which makes it go like Speedy Gonzalez; and the fact that it's command line makes it scriptable and easily automated.