SCP(1)

BSD General Commands Manual

SCP(1)

NAME
scp — OpenSSH secure file copy

SYNOPSIS
scp [-346BCpqrTv] [-c cipher] [-F ssh_config] [-i identity_file] [-J
destination] [-l limit] [-o ssh_option] [-P port] [-S program] source ... target

DESCRIPTION
scp copies files between hosts on a network. It uses ssh(1) for data
transfer, and uses the same authentication and provides the same security as
ssh(1). 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 may
only be specified on the target if the -3 option is used.

The options are as follows:

-3 Copies between two remote hosts are transferred through the local
host. Without this option the data is copied directly between the two remote
hosts. Note that this option dis‐
ables the progress meter.

-4 Forces scp to use IPv4 addresses only.

-6 Forces scp to use IPv6 addresses only.

-B Selects batch mode (prevents asking for passwords or passphrases).

-C Compression enable. Passes the -C flag to ssh(1) to enable

compression.

-c cipher
Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfer. This
option is directly passed to ssh(1).

-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 public 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 ssh_option
Can be used to pass options to ssh in the format used in
ssh_config(5). This is useful for specifying options for which there is no
separate scp command-line flag. For full de‐
tails of the options listed below, and their possible values, see
ssh_config(5).

AddressFamily
BatchMode
BindAddress
BindInterface
CanonicalDomains
CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
CanonicalizeHostname
CanonicalizeMaxDots
CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
CASignatureAlgorithms
CertificateFile
ChallengeResponseAuthentication
CheckHostIP
Ciphers
Compression
ConnectionAttempts
ConnectTimeout
ControlMaster
ControlPath
ControlPersist
GlobalKnownHostsFile
GSSAPIAuthentication
GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
HashKnownHosts
Host
HostbasedAuthentication
HostbasedKeyTypes
HostKeyAlgorithms
HostKeyAlias
Hostname
IdentitiesOnly
IdentityAgent
IdentityFile
IPQoS
KbdInteractiveAuthentication
KbdInteractiveDevices
KexAlgorithms
LogLevel
MACs
NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
NumberOfPasswordPrompts
PasswordAuthentication
PKCS11Provider
Port
PreferredAuthentications
 ProxyCommand
ProxyJump
PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes
PubkeyAuthentication
RekeyLimit
SendEnv
ServerAliveInterval
ServerAliveCountMax
SetEnv
StrictHostKeyChecking
TCPKeepAlive
UpdateHostKeys
User
UserKnownHostsFile
VerifyHostKeyDNS

-P port
Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host. Note that this
option is written with a capital ‘P’, because -p is already reserved for preserving
the times and modes of the
file.

-p Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from the

original file.

-q Quiet mode: disables the progress meter as well as warning and

diagnostic messages from ssh(1).

-r Recursively copy entire directories. Note that scp follows symbolic

links encountered in the tree traversal.

-S program
Name of program to use for the encrypted connection. The program must
understand ssh(1) options.

-T Disable strict filename checking. By default when copying files from

a remote host to a local directory scp checks that the received filenames match
those requested on the com‐
mand-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 unexpected filenames.

-v Verbose mode. Causes scp and ssh(1) to print debugging messages about
their progress. This is helpful in debugging connection, authentication, and
configuration problems.

EXIT STATUS
The scp utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO
sftp(1), ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-agent(1), ssh-keygen(1), ssh_config(5),
sshd(8)

HISTORY
scp is based on the rcp program in BSD source code from the Regents of the
University of California.
AUTHORS
Timo Rinne <[email protected]>
Tatu Ylonen <[email protected]>

BSD
November 30, 2019
BSD