scp copies files between hosts on a network.
It uses ssh(1) for data transfer, and uses the same authentication
and provides the same security as a login session. The scp
protocol requires execution of the remote user's shell to perform
glob(3) pattern matching.
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. Without this option the data is copied
directly between the two remote hosts. Note that, when
using the legacy SCP protocol (the default), this option
selects batch mode for the second host as scp cannot ask
for passwords or passphrases for both hosts. This mode is
the default.
-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(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
When using the SFTP protocol support via -M, 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 or for
backwards-compatibility for particular filename wildcard
patterns. This mode is the default.
-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).
AddressFamily
BatchMode
BindAddress
BindInterface
CanonicalDomains
CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
CanonicalizeHostname
CanonicalizeMaxDots
CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
CASignatureAlgorithms
CertificateFile
CheckHostIP
Ciphers
Compression
ConnectionAttempts
ConnectTimeout
ControlMaster
ControlPath
ControlPersist
GlobalKnownHostsFile
GSSAPIAuthentication
GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
HashKnownHosts
Host
HostbasedAcceptedAlgorithms
HostbasedAuthentication
HostKeyAlgorithms
HostKeyAlias
Hostname
IdentitiesOnly
IdentityAgent
IdentityFile
IPQoS
KbdInteractiveAuthentication
KbdInteractiveDevices
KexAlgorithms
KnownHostsCommand
LogLevel
MACs
NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
NumberOfPasswordPrompts
PasswordAuthentication
PKCS11Provider
Port
PreferredAuthentications
ProxyCommand
ProxyJump
PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms
PubkeyAuthentication
RekeyLimit
SendEnv
ServerAliveInterval
ServerAliveCountMax
SetEnv
StrictHostKeyChecking
TCPKeepAlive
UpdateHostKeys
User
UserKnownHostsFile
VerifyHostKeyDNS
-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.
-p Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from
the original 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 performed 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.
-s Use the SFTP protocol for file transfers instead of the
legacy SCP protocol. Using SFTP avoids invoking a shell on
the remote side and provides more predictable filename
handling, as the SCP protocol relied on the remote shell
for expanding glob(3) wildcards.
A near-future release of OpenSSH will make the SFTP
protocol the default. This option will be deleted before
the end of 2022.
-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(1) to print debugging
messages about their progress. This is helpful in
debugging connection, authentication, and configuration
problems.
