SCP Command Syntax Examples in Linux

scp stands for secure cp (copy), which means you can copy files across ssh connection. It is a very secure way to copy files between computers as SSH (Secure Shell) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network.
scp uses by default the port 22, and connect via an encrypted connection or secure shell connection. You can also copy files directly from one remote server to another remote server. scp is very versatile and can be used on Linux, Mac and Windows (using WinSCP).

• Copy from Source to Destination
• Copy from Remote Location
• Copy from user 1 to user2 in same location
• Copy Multiple Files
• Copy any file with specific extension
• WINSCP
• PSCP

We are going to start with the some basic commands and examples here.

The following syntax is used to copy a file from source to a destination.

Depending on the type of host, the above syntax will also need a file path with full host address, port number, username and password along with the directory path.
So if you want to send file from your local machine to a remote machine the syntax would look like this

This will be reverse when copying file from remote host to local host.

If you simply want to download the file to your local machine the simple form of syntax would be

NOTE: By default scp will always overwrite files (if already exists) on the destination.

The following syntax will guide you to copy the same file from user1 home folder to user2 home folder in another remote machine.

Now, with the following syntax we will see how to Copy one single file from a remote host to the same remote host in another location

Now we will see how to Copy a directory ("demo_dir" in this e.g.) from the local host to a remote host's directory ("location" in this e.g.)

We will see now how to copy multiple files using scp command

Note: You can copy multiple files at once without having to copy all the files in a folder, or copy multiple files from different folders putting them in a space separated list.

If you want to copy multiple files that are located in different folders you need to specify the complete path.

The following syntax will copy all files of a given extension to the remote server. For instance, you want to copy all your text files (txt extension) to a new folder. Here we will use a wildcard asterisk (*) to simplify the task.

Copy all files in a folder with any extension to a remote server. This will copy all files inside local folder to the remote folder.

Here's an example.

Other available options of SCP

WinSCP

If you are working on a Windows powered computer, you can still enjoy scp in various ways. Winscp is a powerful GUI tool available used by a large number of user base that use windows platform.

pscp

pscp is a shell command that works almost on Windows Shell the same way that scp works on Linux or Mac OS X