# man > scp(1) > **TLDR:** Secure copy. > - Copy a local file to a remote host: `scp {{path/to/local_file}} {{remote_host}}:{{path/to/remote_file}}` - Use a specific port when connecting to the remote host: `scp -P {{port}} {{path/to/local_file}} {{remote_host}}:{{path/to/remote_file}}` - Copy a file from a remote host to a local directory: `scp {{remote_host}}:{{path/to/remote_file}} {{path/to/local_directory}}` - Recursively copy the contents of a directory from a remote host to a local directory: `scp -r {{remote_host}}:{{path/to/remote_directory}} {{path/to/local_directory}}` - Copy a file between two remote hosts transferring through the local host: `scp -3 {{host1}}:{{path/to/remote_file}} {{host2}}:{{path/to/remote_directory}}` - Use a specific username when connecting to the remote host: `scp {{path/to/local_file}} {{remote_username}}@{{remote_host}}:{{path/to/remote_directory}}` - Use a specific SSH private key for authentication with the remote host: `scp -i {{~/.ssh/private_key}} {{path/to/local_file}} {{remote_host}}:{{path/to/remote_file}}` - Use a specific proxy when connecting to the remote host: `scp -J {{proxy_username}}@{{proxy_host}} {{path/to/local_file}} {{remote_host}}:{{path/to/remote_file}}` *Source: tldr-pages* --- [_SCP_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SCP/1/markdown) General Commands Manual [_SCP_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SCP/1/markdown) ## 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_] [**-X _**sftp_option_] _source_ _..._ _target_ ## DESCRIPTION **scp **copies files between hosts on a network. **scp **uses the SFTP protocol over a [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown) connection for data transfer, and uses the same au‐ thentication 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 option the data is copied directly between the two remote hosts. Note that, when us‐ ing 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. This mode is the default. ### -4 ### -6 ### -A ward an authentication agent. ### -B ### -C -C ### -c _ Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfer. This option is directly passed to [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). ### -D _ Connect directly to a local SFTP server program rather than a remote one via [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). This option may be useful in debugging the client and server. ### -F _ Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for **ssh**. This option is di‐ rectly passed to [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). ### -i _ Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for public key authentication is read. This option is directly passed to [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). ### -J _ Connect to the target host by first making an **scp **connection to the jump host de‐ scribed by _destination_ and then establishing a TCP forwarding to the ultimate desti‐ nation from there. Multiple jump hops may be specified separated by comma charac‐ ters. This is a shortcut to specify a **ProxyJump **configuration directive. This op‐ tion is directly passed to [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). ### -l _ Limits the used bandwidth, specified in Kbit/s. ### -O 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 expand‐ ing paths with a ‘~’ prefix for older SFTP servers. ### -o _ Can be used to pass options to **ssh **in the format used in [_ssh_config_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sshconfig/5/markdown). This is use‐ ful 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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sshconfig/5/markdown). 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 RequiredRSASize SendEnv ServerAliveInterval ServerAliveCountMax SetEnv StrictHostKeyChecking TCPKeepAlive UpdateHostKeys User UserKnownHostsFile VerifyHostKeyDNS ### -P _ Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host. Note that this option is writ‐ ten with a capital ‘P’, because **-p **is already reserved for preserving the times and mode bits of the file. ### -p ### -q from [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). ### -R executing **scp **there. This requires that **scp **running on the origin host can authenti‐ cate to the destination host without requiring a password. ### -r tered in the tree traversal. ### -S _ Name of _program_ to use for the encrypted connection. The program must understand [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown) options. ### -T 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 unex‐ pected filenames. ### -v progress. This is helpful in debugging connection, authentication, and configuration problems. ### -X _ Specify an option that controls aspects of SFTP protocol behaviour. The valid op‐ tions 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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sftp/1/markdown), [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown), [_ssh-add_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh-add/1/markdown), [_ssh-agent_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh-agent/1/markdown), [_ssh-keygen_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh-keygen/1/markdown), [_ssh_config_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sshconfig/5/markdown), [_sftp-server_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sftp-server/8/markdown), [_sshd_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sshd/8/markdown) ## HISTORY **scp **is based on the rcp program in BSD source code from the Regents of the University of Cal‐ ifornia. Since OpenSSH 9.0, **scp **has used the SFTP protocol for transfers by default. ## AUTHORS Timo Rinne <<_tri@iki.fi_>> Tatu Ylonen <<_ylo@cs.hut.fi_>> ## CAVEATS The legacy SCP protocol (selected by the **-O **flag) requires execution of the remote user's shell to perform [_glob_(3)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/glob/3/markdown) pattern matching. This requires careful quoting of any characters that have special meaning to the remote shell, such as quote characters. Debian December 16, 2022 [_SCP_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SCP/1/markdown)