Question

How to use scp to transfer files in Linux

Answer 1

The scp command copies files to or from a remote Linux system. You will be prompted for your TCC password for authentication.

• To copy files from the local system to a remote system:

  scp file... user@host.domain:path

  where:

  file

  File to be copied.

  user

  Your username on the remote system.

  host.domain

  The Internet address of the remote system, such as linux.nmt.edu.

  path

  The absolute path name to the destination on the remote system.

  Example:

  scp -r . root@IP:/var/www/html/

  [root@localhost agi-bin]# scp -r . root@remote-IP:/var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin/lib/

  • where agi-bin is a folder which we want to copy to lib directory
  • You can copy a complete directory by adding a “-r” after the “scp”:

   

  NAME

  scp – secure copy (remote file copy program)

  SYNOPSIS

  scp [-pqrvBC46 ] [-F ssh_config ] [-S program ] [-P port ] [-c cipher ] [-i identity_file ] [-o ssh_option ] [[user@ ] host1 : file1 ] [... ] [[user@ ] host2 : file2 ]

  • The options are as follows:

    -c cipher

    Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfer. This option is directly passed to ssh(1).

    -i identity_file

    Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for RSA authentication is read. This option is directly passed to ssh(1).

    -p

    Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from the original file.

    -r

    Recursively copy entire directories.

    -v

    Verbose mode. Causes scp and ssh(1) to print debugging messages about their progress. This is helpful in debugging connection, authentication, and configuration problems.

    -B

    Selects batch mode (prevents asking for passwords or passphrases).

    -q

    Disables the progress meter.

    -C

    Compression enable. Passes the -C flag to ssh(1) to enable compression.

    -F ssh_config

    Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for ssh This option is directly passed to ssh(1).

    -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 already reserved for preserving the times and modes of the file in rcp(1).

    -S program

    Name of program to use for the encrypted connection. The program must understand ssh(1) options.

    -o ssh_option

    Can be used to pass options to ssh in the format used in ssh_config5. This is useful for specifying options for which there is no separate scp command-line flag. For example, forcing the use of protocol version 1 is specified using scp -oProtocol=1

    -4

    Forces scp to use IPv4 addresses only.

    -6

    Forces scp to use IPv6 addresses only.

Comments

scp -r DIR root@REMOTEIP:/usr/src/