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TLDR: rcp (tldr-pages)

Copy files between local and remote systems.

  • Copy a file to a remote host
    rcp {{path/to/local_file}} {{username}}@{{remote_host}}:/{{path/to/destination}}/
  • Copy a directory recursively
    rcp {{-r|--recursive}} {{path/to/local_directory}} {{username}}@{{remote_host}}:/{{path/to/destination}}/
  • Preserve the file attributes
    rcp {{-p|--preserve}} {{path/to/local_file}} {{username}}@{{remote_host}}:/{{path/to/destination}}/
  • Force copy without a confirmation
    rcp {{-f|--from}} {{path/to/local_file}} {{username}}@{{remote_host}}:/{{path/to/destination}}/
rcp(1)
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION EXIT STATUS SEE ALSO HISTORY AUTHORS CAVEATS
SCP(1)                    BSD General Commands Manual                   SCP(1)

NAME
     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] source ... target

DESCRIPTION
     scp copies files between hosts on a network.

     It uses ssh(1) for data transfer, and uses the same authentication and provides the same secu‐
     rity 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.  Without this
             option the data is copied directly between the two remote hosts.  Note that, when using
             the original 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 -s, 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 original 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.  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 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 performed by connecting to the origin host and exe‐
             cuting 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 transfers rather than the original scp protocol.

     -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.  Be‐
             cause 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.

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 Cali‐
     fornia.

AUTHORS
     Timo Rinne <tri AT iki.fi>
     Tatu Ylonen <ylo AT cs.fi>

CAVEATS
     The original SCP protocol (used by default) 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.

BSD                            February 10, 2022                           BSD

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