What is Secure Copy?

scp allows files to be copied to, from, or between different hosts. It uses ssh for data transfer and provides the same authentication and same level of security as ssh.

Examples

Copy the file “foobar.txt” from a remote host to the local host

$ scp [email protected]:foobar.txt /some/local/directory

Copy the file “foobar.txt” from the local host to a remote host

$ scp foobar.txt [email protected]:/some/remote/directory

Copy the directory “foo” from the local host to a remote host’s directory “bar”

$ scp -r foo [email protected]:/some/remote/directory/bar

Copy the file “foobar.txt” from remote host “rh1.edu” to remote host “rh2.edu”

$ scp [email protected]:/some/remote/directory/foobar.txt \ [email protected]:/some/remote/directory/

Copying the files “foo.txt” and “bar.txt” from the local host to your home directory on the remote host

$ scp foo.txt bar.txt [email protected]:~

Copy the file “foobar.txt” from the local host to a remote host using port 2264

$ scp -P 2264 foobar.txt [email protected]:/some/remote/directory

Copy multiple files from the remote host to your current directory on the local host

$ scp [email protected]:/some/remote/directory/\{a,b,c\} .

$ scp [email protected]:~/\{foo.txt,bar.txt\} .