SCP File Transfers
In Simple Terms
*NOTE: SCP uses SSH to make connections for copying. If your remote Server has the same username as your local system, it will use the local name on the remote by default
*NOTE: SCP defaults to the home directory. You will not need a full path in the syntax string, but it is a good practice to "Fully Qualify" everything for clarity.
- From Local to Remote
- [COMMAND ] [LOCAL PATH] [FILE] [SERVER NAME]:[USER NAME]@[REMOTE PATH]
- scp /home/jseaman myfile.txt remoteserver@jseaman:/home/jseaman/Documents
- From Remote to Local
- [COMMAND] [SERVER NAME]:[USER NAME]@[FILE PATH] [LOCAL PATH]
- scp jseaman@remoteserver:/home/jseaman/Documents/myfile.txt /home/jseaman
- Copying Folders
- scp -r /home/jseaman/Backups jseaman@remoteserver:/home/jseaman
- Preserve DateTime Stamps
- scp -p /home/jseaman myfile.txt remoteserver@jseaman:/home/jseaman/Documents
- scp -pr /home/jseamanBackups remoteserver@jseaman:/home/jseaman
SCP Manual
SCP(1) General Commands Manual SCP(1)
NAME
scp — OpenSSH secure file copy
SYNOPSIS
scp [-346ABCOpqRrsTv] [-c cipher] [-D sftp_server_path] [-F ssh_config] [-i identity_file] [-J destination] [-l limit]
[-o ssh_option] [-P port] [-S program] [-X sftp_option] source ... target
DESCRIPTION
scp copies files between hosts on a network.
scp uses the SFTP protocol over a ssh(1) connection for data transfer, and uses the same authentication and provides the same secu‐
rity as a login session.
scp will ask for passwords or passphrases if they are needed for authentication.
The source and target may be specified as a local pathname, a remote host with optional path in the form [user@]host:[path], or a URI
in the form scp://[user@]host[:port][/path]. Local file names can be made explicit using absolute or relative pathnames to avoid scp
treating file names containing ‘:’ as host specifiers.
When copying between two remote hosts, if the URI format is used, a port cannot be specified on the target if the -R option is used.
The options are as follows:
-3 Copies between two remote hosts are transferred through the local host. Without this option the data is copied directly be‐
tween the two remote hosts. Note that, when using the legacy SCP protocol (via the -O flag), this option selects batch mode
for the second host as scp cannot ask for passwords or passphrases for both hosts. This mode is the default.
-4 Forces scp to use IPv4 addresses only.
-6 Forces scp to use IPv6 addresses only.
-A Allows forwarding of ssh-agent(1) to the remote system. The default is not to forward an authentication agent.
-B Selects batch mode (prevents asking for passwords or passphrases).
-C Compression enable. Passes the -C flag to ssh(1) to enable compression.
-c cipher
Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfer. This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
-D sftp_server_path
Connect directly to a local SFTP server program rather than a remote one via ssh(1). This option may be useful in debugging
the client and server.
-F ssh_config
Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for ssh. This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
-i identity_file
Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for public key authentication is read. This option is directly passed
to ssh(1).
-J destination
Connect to the target host by first making an scp connection to the jump host described by destination and then establishing
a TCP forwarding to the ultimate destination from there. Multiple jump hops may be specified separated by comma characters.
This is a shortcut to specify a ProxyJump configuration directive. This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
-l limit
Limits the used bandwidth, specified in Kbit/s.
-O Use the legacy SCP protocol for file transfers instead of the SFTP protocol. Forcing the use of the SCP protocol may be nec‐
essary for servers that do not implement SFTP, for backwards-compatibility for particular filename wildcard patterns and for
expanding paths with a ‘~’ prefix for older SFTP servers.
-o ssh_option
Can be used to pass options to ssh in the format used in ssh_config(5). This is useful for specifying options for which
there is no separate scp command-line flag. For full details of the options listed below, and their possible values, see
ssh_config(5).
AddKeysToAgent
AddressFamily
BatchMode
BindAddress
BindInterface
CASignatureAlgorithms
CanonicalDomains
CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
CanonicalizeHostname
CanonicalizeMaxDots
CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
CertificateFile
ChannelTimeout
CheckHostIP
Ciphers
ClearAllForwardings
Compression
ConnectTimeout
ConnectionAttempts
ControlMaster
ControlPath
ControlPersist
DynamicForward
EnableEscapeCommandline
EnableSSHKeysign
EscapeChar
ExitOnForwardFailure
FingerprintHash
ForkAfterAuthentication
ForwardAgent
ForwardX11
ForwardX11Timeout
ForwardX11Trusted
GSSAPIAuthentication
GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
GatewayPorts
GlobalKnownHostsFile
HashKnownHosts
Host
HostKeyAlgorithms
HostKeyAlias
HostbasedAcceptedAlgorithms
HostbasedAuthentication
Hostname
IPQoS
IdentitiesOnly
IdentityAgent
IdentityFile
IgnoreUnknown
Include
KbdInteractiveAuthentication
KbdInteractiveDevices
KexAlgorithms
KnownHostsCommand
LocalCommand
LocalForward
LogLevel
LogVerbose
MACs
NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
NumberOfPasswordPrompts
ObscureKeystrokeTiming
PKCS11Provider
PasswordAuthentication
PermitLocalCommand
PermitRemoteOpen
Port
PreferredAuthentications
ProxyCommand
ProxyJump
ProxyUseFdpass
PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms
PubkeyAuthentication
RekeyLimit
RemoteCommand
RemoteForward
RequestTTY
RequiredRSASize
RevokedHostKeys
SecurityKeyProvider
SendEnv
ServerAliveCountMax
ServerAliveInterval
SessionType
SetEnv
StdinNull
StreamLocalBindMask
StreamLocalBindUnlink
StrictHostKeyChecking
SyslogFacility
TCPKeepAlive
Tag
Tunnel
TunnelDevice
UpdateHostKeys
User
UserKnownHostsFile
VerifyHostKeyDNS
VisualHostKey
XAuthLocation
-P port
Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host. Note that this option is written with a capital ‘P’, because -p is al‐
ready reserved for preserving the times and mode bits of the file.
-p Preserves modification times, access times, and file mode bits from the source file.
-q Quiet mode: disables the progress meter as well as warning and diagnostic messages from ssh(1).
-R Copies between two remote hosts are performed by connecting to the origin host and executing scp there. This requires that
scp running on the origin host can authenticate to the destination host without requiring a password.
-r Recursively copy entire directories. Note that scp follows symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal.
-S program
Name of program to use for the encrypted connection. The program must understand ssh(1) options.
-T Disable strict filename checking. By default when copying files from a remote host to a local directory scp checks that the
received filenames match those requested on the command-line to prevent the remote end from sending unexpected or
unwanted files. Because of differences in how various operating systems and shells interpret filename wildcards, these checks
may cause wanted files to be rejected. This option disables these checks at the expense of fully trusting that the server will
not send unexpected filenames.
-v Verbose mode. Causes scp and ssh(1) to print debugging messages about their progress. This is helpful in debugging connec‐
tion, authentication, and configuration problems.
-X sftp_option
Specify an option that controls aspects of SFTP protocol behaviour. The valid options are:
nrequests=value
Controls how many concurrent SFTP read or write requests may be in progress at any point in time during a download or
upload. By default 64 requests may be active concurrently.
buffer=value
Controls the maximum buffer size for a single SFTP read/write operation used during download or upload. By default a
32KB buffer is used.
EXIT STATUS
The scp utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSO
sftp(1), ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-agent(1), ssh-keygen(1), ssh_config(5), sftp-server(8), sshd(8)
HISTORY
scp is based on the rcp program in BSD source code from the Regents of the University of California.
Since OpenSSH 9.0, scp has used the SFTP protocol for transfers by default.
CAVEATS
The legacy SCP protocol (selected by the -O flag) requires execution of the remote user's shell to perform glob(3) pattern matching.
This requires careful quoting of any characters that have special meaning to the remote shell, such as quote characters.
Debian December 6, 2024 SCP(1)