10 SCP Commands to Transfer Files/Folders in Linux

Linux administrator should be familiar with CLI environment. Since GUI mode in Linux servers is not a common to be installed. SSH may the most popular protocol to enable Linux administrator to manage the servers via remote in secure way. Built-in with SSH command there is SCP command. SCP is used to copy file(s) between servers in secure way.

10 Linux SCP Commands

The below command will read as “copy source_file_name” into “destination_folder” at “destination_host” using “username account”.

Basic syntax of SCP

scp source_file_name username@destination_host:destination_folder

There are much parameters in SCP command that you can use. Here are the parameters that may useful on daily basis usage.

Provide the detail information of SCP process using -v parameter

Basic SCP command without parameter will copy the files in background. User will see nothing unless the process is done or some error appears. You can use “-v” parameter to print debug information into the screen. It can help you debugging connection, authentication and configuration problems.

pungki@mint ~/Documents $ scp -v Label.pdf mrarianto@202.x.x.x:.

Sample Output

Executing: program /usr/bin/ssh host 202.x.x.x, user mrarianto, command scp -v -t .
OpenSSH_6.0p1 Debian-3, OpenSSL 1.0.1c 10 May 2012
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to 202.x.x.x [202.x.x.x] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: Host '202.x.x.x' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /home/pungki/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: Next authentication method: password
mrarianto@202.x.x.x's password:
debug1: Authentication succeeded (password).
Authenticated to 202.x.x.x ([202.x.x.x]:22).
Sending file modes: C0770 3760348 Label.pdf
Sink: C0770 3760348 Label.pdf
Label.pdf 100% 3672KB 136.0KB/s 00:27
Transferred: sent 3766304, received 3000 bytes, in 65.2 seconds
Bytes per second: sent 57766.4, received 46.0
debug1: Exit status 0

Provide modification times, access times, and modes from original files

The “-p” parameter will help you on this. An estimated time and the connection speed will appear on the screen.

pungki@mint ~/Documents $ scp -p Label.pdf mrarianto@202.x.x.x:.

Sample Output

mrarianto@202.x.x.x's password:
Label.pdf 100% 3672KB 126.6KB/s 00:29

Make file transfer faster using -C parameter

One of parameter that can faster your file transfer is “-C” parameter. The “-C” parameter will compress your files on the go. The unique thing is the compression is only happen in the network. When the file is arrived to the destination server, it will returning into the original size as before the compression happen.

Take a look of these commands. It is using a single file of 93 Mb.

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