adb pull multiple files

./adb pull /sdcard <-- fails

./adb pull /sdcard/ <-- works recursively - note the trailing slash

Tested with Nexus 5 and adb downloaded March 2014.

You can use xargs and the result of the adb shell ls command which accepts wildcards. This allows you to copy multiple files. Annoyingly the output of the adb shell ls command includes line-feed control characters that you can remove using tr -d '\r'.

Examples:

# Using a relative path
adb shell 'ls sdcard/gps*.trace' | tr -d '\r' | xargs -n1 adb pull
# Using an absolute path 
adb shell 'ls /sdcard/*.txt' | tr -d '\r' | sed -e 's/^\///' | xargs -n1 adb pull

Parsing the output from 'ls' is generally a bad idea. Instead, use 'find'.

adb shell 'find /sdcard/ -name "gps*.trace" -print0' | xargs -0 -n 1 adb pull

Why you shouldn't parse the output of ls

adb pull can receive a directory name instead of at file and it will pull the directory with all files in it.

Pull all your gps traces in /sdcard/gpsTraces

adb pull /sdcard/gpsTraces/ . 

Example of adb pull and adb push of recursive directories:

C:\Test>adb pull /data/misc/test/ .
pull: building file list...
pull: /data/misc/test/test1/test2/test.3 -> ./test1/test2/test.3
pull: /data/misc/test/test1/test2/test.2 -> ./test1/test2/test.2
pull: /data/misc/test/test1/test2/test.1 -> ./test1/test2/test.1
pull: /data/misc/test/test1/test.3 -> ./test1/test.3
pull: /data/misc/test/test1/test.2 -> ./test1/test.2
pull: /data/misc/test/test1/test.1 -> ./test1/test.1
pull: /data/misc/test/test.3 -> ./test.3
pull: /data/misc/test/test.2 -> ./test.2
pull: /data/misc/test/test.1 -> ./test.1
9 files pulled. 0 files skipped.
0 KB/s (45 bytes in 0.093s)

C:\Test>adb push . /data/misc/test/
push: ./test1/test2/test.3 -> /data/misc/test/test1/test2/test.3
push: ./test1/test2/test.2 -> /data/misc/test/test1/test2/test.2
push: ./test1/test2/test.1 -> /data/misc/test/test1/test2/test.1
push: ./test1/test.3 -> /data/misc/test/test1/test.3
push: ./test1/test.2 -> /data/misc/test/test1/test.2
push: ./test1/test.1 -> /data/misc/test/test1/test.1
push: ./test.3 -> /data/misc/test/test.3
push: ./test.2 -> /data/misc/test/test.2
push: ./test.1 -> /data/misc/test/test.1
9 files pushed. 0 files skipped.
0 KB/s (45 bytes in 0.062s)