SCP Command-Line Tool Description

SCP(1) 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] [-X sftp_option] source ... target DESCRIPTION scp copies files between hosts on a network. scp uses the SFTP protocol over a ssh(1) connection for data transfer, and uses the same authentication and provides the same security as a lo‐ gin session. scp will ask for passwords or passphrases if they are needed for authen‐ tication. 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 ex‐ plicit 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 lo‐ cal host. Without this option the data is copied directly be‐ tween the two remote hosts. Note that, when using 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 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 de‐ fault 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 com‐ pression. -c cipher Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfer. This option is directly passed to ssh(1). -D sftp_server_path 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 pub‐ lic 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 nec‐ essary 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. -o ssh_option Can be used to pass options to ssh in the format used

This document describes the scp (secure copy) command-line tool, which is used for copying files between hosts on a network securely. It uses the SFTP protocol over an SSH connection for data transfer and provides the same security as a login session. The document details the syntax, options, and usage of the scp command, including specifying source and target locations, enabling compression, limiting bandwidth, and using different authentication methods.