[Linux] scp command Tutorial

Example:

Examples

Copy one single local file to a remote destination

scp /path/to/source-file user@host:/path/to/destination-folder/

So, if you wan to copy the file /home/user/table.csv to a remote host named host.example.com and copy there to jane's home folder, use this command.

scp /home/user/table.csv jane@host.example.com:/home/jane/

Copy one single file from a remote server to your current local server

scp user@host:/path/to/source-file /path/to/destination-folder

Let's say now you want to copy the same file from jane's home folder in host.example.com to your local home folder.

scp jane@host.example.com:/home/jane/table.csv /home/user/

Copy one single file from a remote server to another remote server

With scp you can copy files between remote servers from a third server without the need to ssh into any of them, all weight lifting will be done by scp itself.

scp user1@server1:/path/to/file user2@server2:/path/to/folder/

Let's say now you want to copy the same table file from jane's home folder to pete's home folder in another remote machine.

scp jane@host.example.com:/home/jane/table.csv pete@host2.example.com:/home/pete/

Copy one single file from a remote host to the same remote host in another location

scp jane@host.example.com:/home/jane/table.csv pete@host.example.com:/home/pete/

This time, you will be copying from one host to the same host, but on different folders under the control of different users.