Linux administrators should be familiar with the command-line environment. Since GUI (Graphical User Interface) mode in Linux servers is not common to be installed.
SSH may be the most popular protocol to enable Linux administrators to manage the servers in a remote secure way. Built in with SSH command there is SCP command, which is used to copy file(s) between servers in a secure way.
Basic Syntax of SCP Command
The below command will read as copy “source_file_name” into “destination_folder” at “destination_host” using the “username” account.
scp source_file_name username@destination_host:destination_folder
There are many parameters in the SCP command that you can use. Here are the parameters that may use on daily basis usage.
Table of Contents
Securely Transfer Files in Linux
The basic SCP command without parameters will copy the files in the background. Users will see nothing unless the process is done or some error appears.
You can use the “-v” parameter to print debug information into the screen. It can help you debug connection, authentication, and configuration problems.
Copy File From Local Host to Remote Server
The following command copies a file “scp-cheatsheet.pdf” from a local to a remote Linux system under /home/tecmint directory.
$ scp -v scp-cheatsheet.pdf [email protected]:/home/tecmint/.
Sample Output:
Executing: program /usr/bin/ssh host 192.168.0.183, user tecmint, command scp -v -t /home/tecmint/. OpenSSH_8.2p1 Ubuntu-4ubuntu0.5, OpenSSL 1.1.1f 31 Mar 2020 debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: include /etc/ssh/ssh_config.d/*.conf matched no files debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 21: Applying options for * debug1: Connecting to 192.168.0.183 [192.168.0.183] port 22. debug1: Connection established. debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_rsa type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_dsa type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ecdsa_sk type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ecdsa_sk-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ed25519_sk type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ed25519_sk-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_xmss type -1 ...
Copy File From Remote Host to Local Host
The following command copies a file “ssh-cheatsheet.pdf” from a remote host to a local system under /home/tecmint directory.
$ scp -v [email protected]:/home/ravi/ssh-cheatsheet.pdf /home/tecmint/.
Sample Output:
Executing: program /usr/bin/ssh host 192.168.0.183, user tecmint, command scp -v -f /home/ravi/ssh-cheatsheet.pdf OpenSSH_8.2p1 Ubuntu-4ubuntu0.5, OpenSSL 1.1.1f 31 Mar 2020 debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: include /etc/ssh/ssh_config.d/*.conf matched no files debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 21: Applying options for * debug1: Connecting to 192.168.0.183 [192.168.0.183] port 22. debug1: Connection established. debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_rsa type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_dsa type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ecdsa_sk type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ecdsa_sk-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1 debug1: identity file /home/tecmint/.ssh/id_ed25519_sk type -1 ...
Copy File From Remote Host to Another Host
The following command copies a file “ssh-cheatsheet.pdf” from a remote host to another remote host system under /home/tecmint directory.
$ scp -v [email protected]:/home/ravi/ssh-cheatsheet.pdf [email protected]:/home/anusha/.
Copy Files with Original Creation Date and Time
The “-p” parameter will preserve files’ original modification and access times while copying files along with the estimated time and the connection speed will appear on the screen.
$ scp -p scp-cheatsheet.pdf [email protected]:/home/tecmint/.
Sample Output:
[email protected]'s password: scp-cheatsheet.pdf 100% 531 721.4KB/s 00:00
Scp Compression While Copying Files
One of the parameters that can faster your file transfer is the “-C” parameter, which is used to compress your files on the go. The unique thing is that compression only happens in the network. When the file has arrived at the destination server, it will be returning to the original size as before the compression happened.
Take a look at these commands. It is using a single file of 93 Mb.
$ scp -pv messages.log [email protected]:.
Sample Output:
Executing: program /usr/bin/ssh host 202.x.x.x, user mrarianto, command scp -v -p -t. OpenSSH_6.0p1 Debian-3, OpenSSL 1.0.1c 10 May 2012 debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: Applying options for * debug1: Connecting to 202.x.x.x [202.x.x.x] port 22. debug1: Connection established. debug1: identity file /home/pungki/.ssh/id_rsa type -1 debug1: Found key in /home/pungki/.ssh/known_hosts:1 debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct debug1: Trying private key: /home/pungki/.ssh/id_rsa debug1: Next authentication method: password [email protected]'s password: debug1: Authentication succeeded (password). Authenticated to 202.x.x.x ([202.x.x.x]:22). debug1: Sending command: scp -v -p -t. File mtime 1323853868 atime 1380425711 Sending file timestamps: T1323853868 0 1380425711 0 messages.log 100% 93MB 58.6KB/s 27:05 Transferred: sent 97614832, received 25976 bytes, in 1661.3 seconds Bytes per second: sent 58758.4, received 15.6 debug1: Exit status 0
Copying files without the “-C” parameter will result in 1661.3 seconds. You may compare the result to the command below using the “-C" parameter.
$ scp -Cpv messages.log [email protected]:.
Sample Output:
Executing: program /usr/bin/ssh host 202.x.x.x, user mrarianto, command scp -v -p -t. OpenSSH_6.0p1 Debian-3, OpenSSL 1.0.1c 10 May 2012 debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: Applying options for * debug1: Connecting to 202.x.x.x [202.x.x.x] port 22. debug1: Connection established. debug1: identity file /home/pungki/.ssh/id_rsa type -1 debug1: Host '202.x.x.x' is known and matches the RSA host key. debug1: Found key in /home/pungki/.ssh/known_hosts:1 debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct debug1: Next authentication method: publickey debug1: Trying private key: /home/pungki/.ssh/id_rsa debug1: Next authentication method: password [email protected]'s password: debug1: Enabling compression at level 6. debug1: Authentication succeeded (password). Authenticated to 202.x.x.x ([202.x.x.x]:22). debug1: channel 0: new [client-session] debug1: Sending command: scp -v -p -t . File mtime 1323853868 atime 1380428748 Sending file timestamps: T1323853868 0 1380428748 0 Sink: T1323853868 0 1380428748 0 Sending file modes: C0600 97517300 messages.log messages.log 100% 93MB 602.7KB/s 02:38 Transferred: sent 8905840, received 15768 bytes, in 162.5 seconds Bytes per second: sent 54813.9, received 97.0 debug1: Exit status 0 debug1: compress outgoing: raw data 97571111, compressed 8806191, factor 0.09 debug1: compress incoming: raw data 7885, compressed 3821, factor 0.48
As you can see, when you are using compression, the transfer process is done in 162.5 seconds. It is 10 times faster than not using the “-C” parameter. If you are copying a lot of files across the network, the “-C” parameter would help you to decrease the total time you need.
The thing that we should notice is that the compression method will not work on any files. When the source file is already compressed, you will not find any improvement there. Files such as .zip, .rar, pictures, and .iso files will not be affected by the “-C” parameter.
Change SCP Cipher to Encrypt Files
By default, SCP uses “AES-128” to encrypt files. If you want to change to another cipher to encrypt it, you can use the “-c” parameter.
Take a look at this command.
$ scp -c 3des Label.pdf [email protected]:. [email protected]'s password: Label.pdf 100% 3672KB 282.5KB/s 00:13
The above command tells SCP to use the 3des algorithm to encrypt the file. Please be careful that this parameter using “-c” not “-C“.
Limiting Bandwidth Usage with SCP Command
Another parameter that may be useful is the “-l” parameter. The “-l” parameter will limit the bandwidth to use. It will be useful if you do an automation script to copy a lot of files, but you don’t want the bandwidth to be drained by the SCP process.
$ scp -l 400 Label.pdf [email protected]:. [email protected]'s password: Label.pdf 100% 3672KB 50.3KB/s 01:13
The 400 value behind the “-l” parameter is mean that we limit the bandwidth for the SCP process to only 50 KB/sec.
One thing to remember is that bandwidth is specified in Kilobits/sec (kbps). It means that 8 bits are equal to 1 byte.
While SCP counts in Kilobyte/sec (KB/s). So if you want to limit your bandwidth to an SCP maximum of only 50 KB/s, you need to set it to 50 x 8 = 400.
SCP with a Different Port
Usually, SCP is using port 22 as a default port, but for security reasons, you may change the port to another port. For example, we are using port 2249.
Then the command should be like this.
$ scp -P 2249 Label.pdf [email protected]:. [email protected]'s password: Label.pdf 100% 3672KB 262.3KB/s 00:14
Make sure that it uses a capital “P” not “p” since “p” is already used for preserved times and modes.
SCP – Copy Files and Directories Recursively
Sometimes we need to copy the directory and all files/directories inside it. It will be better if we can do it in a single command using the “-r” parameter, which copies the entire directory recursively.
$ scp -r documents [email protected]:. [email protected]'s password: Label.pdf 100% 3672KB 282.5KB/s 00:13 scp.txt 100% 10KB 9.8KB/s 00:00
When the copy process is done, at the destination server you will find a directory named “documents” with all its files. The folder “documents” is automatically created.
SCP – Disable Progress Messages
If you choose not to see the progress meter and warning / diagnostic messages from SCP, you may disable it using the “-q” parameter. Here’s an example.
$ scp -q Label.pdf [email protected]:. [email protected]'s password: pungki@mint ~/Documents $
As you can see, after you enter the password, there is no information about the SCP process. After the process is complete, you will see a prompt again.
SCP – Copy Files Using Proxy
The proxy server is usually used in the office environment. Natively, SCP is not a proxy configured. When your environment using a proxy, you have to “tell” SCP to communicate with the proxy.
Here’s the scenario. The proxy address is 10.0.96.6 and the proxy port is 8080. The proxy also implemented user authentication. First, you need to create the “~/.ssh/config” file. Second, you put this command inside it.
ProxyCommand /usr/bin/corkscrew 10.0.96.6 8080 %h %p ~/.ssh/proxyauth
Then you need to create the file “~/.ssh/proxyauth” which contains.
myusername:mypassword
After that, you can do SCP transparently as usual.
Please notice that the corkscrew is might not be installed yet on your system. On my Linux Mint, I need to install it first, using the standard Linux Mint installation procedure.
$ apt-get install corkscrew
For other yum-based systems, users can install corkscrew using the following yum command.
# yum install corkscrew
Another thing is that since the “~/.ssh/proxyauth” file contains your “username” and “password” in clear-text format, please make sure that the file can be accessed by you only.
Choose a Different ssh_config File
For mobile users who often switch between the company networks and public networks, it will be suffering to always change settings in SCP. It is better if we can put a different ssh_config file to match our needs.
Proxy is used in the company network but not in the public network and you regularly switch networks.
$ scp -F /home/pungki/proxy_ssh_config Label.pdf [email protected]:. [email protected]'s password: Label.pdf 100% 3672KB 282.5KB/s 00:13
By default “ssh_config” file per user will be placed in “~/.ssh/config“. Creating a specific “ssh_config” file with proxy compatibility will make it easier to switch between networks.
When you are on the company network, you can use the “-F” parameter. When you are on a public network, you can skip the “-F” parameter.
That’s all about SCP. You can see man pages of SCP for more detail. Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions.
I mistakenly closed the putty window after launching the copy with scp on VMWare Host. How can I view the progressive percentage by reconnecting?
Brilliant Post on Linux SCP command and usage…
Use zmodem for small files, much easier but a bit slower.
To copy a file to a Linux SSH terminal, just drag and drop it onto the terminal shell window (make sure you are in the right directory where you want the file to be.)
And to copy a file from Linux, back to your ssh terminal, just type “sz filename.ext“, and you will get a popup asking where to save it. This works at least with ZenTerm and Putty.
Hi Team,
I am having some log files with different timestamps. What is the command for scp to get the files between two timestamps? Thanks in advance.
Hi, I’m sending a directory of size 13G to other servers using the SCP command. it is copying more than 36G and get No Space left on device error.
can you please let me know how that is possible
I liked the
-Coption. Saves time!More then one option i.e.
-rand-vcan be used.Hi Pungki Arianto,
We’ve two servers, but how can we execute a file from another environment without providing passwords.
@Hemant,
For passwordless authentication, try to setup SSH Passwordless login and then try to execute the file without entering password.
Hi,
Is there any way to copy a file using scp without entering a password except sshkeygen? I want to put my credentials in a file and the scp script read this.
@Kundan,
Sorry there isn’t any way, the only option is SSH-Keygen i.e. SSH Passwordless login.
There are two Linux server, if i want to send 2 GB file from one to another, so from which command i can send? more importantly, i should get an email on my account that your file has been sent.
Please help me..
@Urwah,
To send file or directory from one Linux server to other Linux server use:
Thank you!very helpful
While copying files from server to client using scp from server system RAM decreasing constantly how to limit it? Size of the file 90gb RAM 15gb in server machine..
I used the below scp command to transfer files, but I don’t find the destination location where all the files copied successfully. I didn’t mention the destination location and put a dot in the end. Please help me to locate the files copied.
@Fasih,
You can find all your files under root home directory,
dot (.)means it will copy root current directory i.e./root..Thanks buddy. I got them.
thanks again :)
Fish
Thanks for this very useful post. I see nowadays many universities are encouraging students to use SFTP and SSH instead of FTP, which I think is a good practice. I’m curious what you think about Web RTC and if you think it will be widely implement by individuals and companies.
—
Sam Smith
Why do files often get missed when doing a transfer? We have a 400mb on server A and when finished transferring the folder size is 130mb on server B?
@Adam,
No that’s not possible, it should be same size on server B, may be you’re doing some mistake while transferring data from server A, please check carefully and do a transfer over scp..
Probably you did SCP recursively, that is copy all files and folders inside a folder being copied.
Use SCP -r commnad, see “Copy files inside directory recursively section above”
I love it when looking around for linux tutorial and found a good one written by old friend. Hi Pungki!
Hi Dan, it’s nice to know that you read my article!
It is useful article. But you may mention how to copy local to remote, remote to local, remote to remote and all. Anyway it’s good.
Nice Article. After reading entire article- Very impressive.. Most of the time I was used general scp -pr, now I understand the importance of this scp command with detailed info. New thing is learned scp -C… Good to hear all and very good article.(DBA)
Nice article. Covers more useful SCP options in a detailed manner….. Helps me alot to learn about SCP command. thank you for your information..
Great article. I had an issue with a password-less login via ssh and rsync. There was a Linux ftp server that had a mounted CIFS (Win2003) share on the back end. For the life of me I couldn’t get rsync to copy. So…my wild guess was the CIFS mount was under a windows security contact where as rsync had no access to.
I tried scp and now I can copy file (flawless).
Just my two cents. Again great article!
Hi, thanks for sharing. One question: I try copy a folder in Linux to Windows… by command line in Linux. Exactly through .sh file (Is a automatic backup). Both PC are in same LAN. This is my instruccion:
scp /srv/zimbra_mail/ [email protected]:/arbokdsp-dd/ARBOKSVR-COL/Cuentas/
But it doesn’t work. ¿Can you help me? Thanks
@Andres,
You can’t just scp from Linux to Windows..it would not work..to use scp both machines must be Linux..
SCP is part of SSH protocol. If you are copying between two machines then both needs to support SSH.
So if you need to copy from linux(by default ssh is included) to windows you will have to install SSH server on windows PC.
Any machine can support scp to any machine just note that both must have ssh server installed.
Thanks.
@Namick,
I completely agree with your point..ssh is must on both end to communicate…
How to send file from selected file (ls command) ?
I am not really understanding what you meant.
If you can get the filename from ls command, then you can put the file name after the scp command.
Example : $ scp file_name destination
Helpful blog
I SSHed into my iphone, and attempted to copy a file onto localhost. When asked for a password, i entered my password i use to log into the localhost, however i get a password incorrect error. any suggestions?
I also want to let you know how this was helpful for me!
Hi,
I just want to say you All guys for sharing helpful information . Please keep it up so we can learn a lot :) :)
What is the path syntax for copying a file from a Linux box to a Windows box? I will have a key so my command would like:
scp $FILE_HOME/${CSV1} svc_usercopy@$job_server:”D:\Kronos Master File Directory\Employees\Employees Import.csv”
I don’t know if the Linux server cares what the Windows directory looks like or not. Any ideas on how this should look?
No idea, never ever tried this.
Excellent write up. Very helpful. Thank you! But the local user directory on Mac OS X wasn’t being recognized for me. It kept throwing me a ‘no such directory’ error. I could only get it to find a folder in my root directory, but the transfer broke off and nothing was actually copied, possilby due to permissions accessing a root directory, for which I needed a password just to create a new folder. Any suggestions?
My command was as follows, for copying remote to local: scp -prC root@lvps178-77-101-202:/var/www/vhosts ~/Downloads/ppcom-backup
Incredibly useful stuff. Thank so much for publishing. -C is a life saver!
This is a terrific post! It helped me to backup all of my data from my previous computer to my new one. The “scp -r” and you just saved me a lot of money! Haha
Thank you so much and keep going on sharing all of this helpful stuff to all the Linux community.
Hi,
Thanks for sharing important information, but however it does not solve my problem.
I have one backup server and one main ftp server. I have to execute a script from backup server to move the files from a path1 on main ftp server to another path2 on the same main ftp server. I can not use ssh for this.
Can you suggest me how can i perform this??
Any information and guidance will be appreciable.
Thanks again for the information.
Just wanted to know in detail how we can use different config file.
Would be really great if you provide the detailed description.
Thanks a lot for the info …
Its very useful.
Thanks a lot – very useful! Keep writing, please!
Thank you very much.
SCP displays the speed in KB/s would be better to say. You should clearify it more that the parameter expects bits, but it displays in bytes..
“While SCP counts in Kilobyte/sec (KB/s). So if you want to limit your bandwidth for SCP maximum only 50 KB/s, you need to set it into 50 x 8 = 400.”
SCP counts in kilobits, you mean. Kb/s. Otherwise you wouldn’t have to multiply..
Yes. It was my mistake.
I mean SCP count in kilobits. I cross checked with SCP manual pages. Thank you
It’s worth noting that rsync will happily copy over ssh and will therefore do all of the above with the same security but with much more powerful copying options.
And rsync will also copy hidden files while scp does not
scp -Cpv messages.log [email protected]:.
compress option most useful to me as i transfer lot of files that could be compressed.
Thank you. Nice to see this article can be useful
nice write up on most common scp usage examples. it will surely be useful to anyone looking on how to use scp.
to add to it, one can also use scp to edit/create files remotely using vim+scp. for example, to edit /etc/hosts on a remote server where ssh is listening on port 8822 one can do:
vim scp://root@:8822//etc/hosts
if ssh is on its default port 22 then the :8822 part can be omitted
it comes handy sometimes so I thought will share it with you ;)
Thank you for your share. It is handy :)
Thanks, great and valuable summary.