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 an ssh(1) connection for data transfer, and uses the same authentication and provides the same security 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. This mode is the
default, but see also the -R option for copying data directly between 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.
-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]({filename}ssh.md)(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 necessary 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).
OPTIONS
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 already 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 transferred through the local host by default. This
option instead copies between two remote hosts 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]({filename}ssh.md)(1) to print debugging messages about their progress.
This is helpful in debugging connection, 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.
AUTHORS
Timo Rinne <_> Tatu Ylonen <_>
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.