Copy files remotely with scp over SSH

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The scp command is similar to cp, but it copies files to and from a remote host over SSH.

Start by creating a file named bar.txt:

echo "foo" > bar.txt

To copy bar.txt to a remote host, specify the local file first, followed by the remote connection string and a colon. The path after the colon is the destination on the remote host. This example copies the file to the remote user’s home directory:

scp bar.txt username@remotehost:

The remote connection string uses the format username@remotehost. By default, scp connects using your default SSH key and port 22.

To use a different SSH private key, add the -i option followed by the key path:

scp -i ~/.ssh/other_key bar.txt username@remotehost:

If the SSH server listens on a port other than 22, add the uppercase -P option followed by the port number:

scp -P 2022 bar.txt username@remotehost:

You can combine the identity and port options when both are needed:

scp -i ~/.ssh/other_key -P 2022 bar.txt username@remotehost:

Use the -r option to copy an entire folder recursively. Create a foo folder and add a bar.txt file to it:

mkdir foo
echo baz > foo/bar.txt

Then copy the complete folder to the remote user’s home directory:

scp -r foo username@remotehost:

To copy a file from the remote host to your local machine, reverse the order of the source and destination. Put the remote connection string first, followed by a colon and the remote file path. The second parameter is the local destination. ./ represents the current directory:

scp username@remotehost:bar.txt ./

You can also give the copied file a new local name by including that name in the destination path:

scp username@remotehost:bar.txt ./local-bar.txt

Copying a folder back works the same way, with the -r option:

scp -r username@remotehost:foo ./

The same SSH options apply when copying from the remote host:

scp -i ~/.ssh/other_key -P 2022 -r username@remotehost:foo ./