Examples
Copy the file "foobar.txt" from a remote host to the local host
$ scp [email protected]:foobar.txt /some/local/directory
Copy the file "foobar.txt" from the local host to a remote host
$ scp foobar.txt [email protected]:/some/remote/directory
Copy the directory "foo" from the local host to a remote host‘s directory "bar"
$ scp -r foo [email protected]:/some/remote/directory/bar
Copy the file "foobar.txt" from remote host "rh1.edu" to remote host "rh2.edu"
$ scp [email protected]:/some/remote/directory/foobar.txt \
[email protected]:/some/remote/directory/
Copying the files "foo.txt" and "bar.txt" from the local host to your home directory on the remote host
$ scp foo.txt bar.txt [email protected]:~
Copy the file "foobar.txt" from the local host to a remote host using port 2264
$ scp -P 2264 foobar.txt [email protected]:/some/remote/directory
Copy multiple files from the remote host to your current directory on the local host
$ scp [email protected]:/some/remote/directory/\{a,b,c\} .
$ scp [email protected]:~/\{foo.txt,bar.txt\} .
scp Performance
By default scp uses the Triple-DES cipher to encrypt the data being sent. Using the Blowfish cipher has been shown to increase speed. This can be done by using option -c blowfish in the command line.
$ scp -c blowfish some_file [email protected]:~
It is often suggested that the -C option for compression should also be used to increase speed. The effect of compression, however, will only significantly increase speed if your connection is very slow. Otherwise it may just be adding extra burden to the CPU. An example of using blowfish and compression:
$ scp -c blowfish -C local_file [email protected]:~
scp with public key:
scp -i <your key> other params