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] 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 a login session.

     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 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 local host.  Without
             this option the data is copied directly between 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 default 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 compression.

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

     -D sftp_server_path
             When using the SFTP protocol support via -M, 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 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      Use the legacy SCP protocol for file transfers instead of the SFTP protocol.
             Forcing the use of the SCP protocol may be necessary 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 in ssh_config(5).  This is
             useful for specifying options for which there is no separate scp command-line flag.
             For full details of the options listed below, and their possible values, see
             ssh_config(5).

                   AddressFamily
                   BatchMode
                   BindAddress
                   BindInterface
                   CanonicalDomains
                   CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
                   CanonicalizeHostname
                   CanonicalizeMaxDots
                   CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
                   CASignatureAlgorithms
                   CertificateFile
                   CheckHostIP
                   Ciphers
                   Compression
                   ConnectionAttempts
                   ConnectTimeout
                   ControlMaster
                   ControlPath
                   ControlPersist
                   GlobalKnownHostsFile
                   GSSAPIAuthentication
                   GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
                   HashKnownHosts
                   Host
                   HostbasedAcceptedAlgorithms
                   HostbasedAuthentication
                   HostKeyAlgorithms
                   HostKeyAlias
                   Hostname
                   IdentitiesOnly
                   IdentityAgent
                   IdentityFile
                   IPQoS
                   KbdInteractiveAuthentication
                   KbdInteractiveDevices
                   KexAlgorithms
                   KnownHostsCommand
                   LogLevel
                   MACs
                   NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
                   NumberOfPasswordPrompts
                   PasswordAuthentication
                   PKCS11Provider
                   Port
                   PreferredAuthentications
                   ProxyCommand
                   ProxyJump
                   PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms
                   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 mode bits of the file.

     -p      Preserves modification times, access times, and file mode bits from the source file.

     -q      Quiet mode: disables the progress meter as well as warning and diagnostic messages
             from ssh(1).

     -R      Copies between two remote hosts are performed by connecting to the origin host and
             executing scp there.  This requires that scp running on the origin host can
             authenticate to the destination host without requiring a password.

     -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 command-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), sftp-server(8),
     sshd(8)

HISTORY

     scp is based on the rcp program in BSD source code from the Regents of the University of
     California.

     Since OpenSSH 8.8, scp has use the SFTP protocol for transfers by default.

AUTHORS

     Timo Rinne <tri@iki.fi>
     Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>

CAVEATS

     The legacy SCP protocol (selected by the -O flag) requires execution of the remote user's
     shell to perform glob(3) pattern matching.  This requires careful quoting of any characters
     that have special meaning to the remote shell, such as quote characters.