LINUX COMMAND ATLAS · COMMAND GUIDE

Linux scp command

Copy files between hosts over SSH. Check both source and destination paths.

OpenSSH

Syntax

Command form

scp [OPTION]... SOURCE... TARGET

6 options

Option	What it does
`-r`	Copy directories recursively.
`-P PORT`	Connect to the SSH server on PORT (uppercase P).
`-i IDENTITY_FILE`	Select the private key file.
`-p`	Preserve modification times, access times and modes.
`-C`	Enable compression during transfer.
`-q`	Suppress progress and diagnostic messages.

3 examples

Copy files between hosts over SSH. Check both source and destination paths.

scp ./report.txt user@host:/tmp/

Copy a local file to a remote directory.

scp report.txt alice@example.com:/tmp/

Copy a directory tree using a custom SSH port.

scp -P 2222 -r ./site alice@example.com:/srv/backup/

Modern OpenSSH scp uses SFTP by default. Quote remote paths containing spaces and confirm the destination before transferring.