Master Secure File Transfers with scp: A Step‑by‑Step Guide

The scp command transfers files between a local system and a remote server (or between two remote servers) over SSH, providing encrypted transmission and supporting both password‑based and key‑based authentication.

Basic Syntax

scp source target

Copy a Local File to a Remote Server

[student@servera ~]$ scp log.tar root@serverb:/logbackup
The authenticity of host 'serverb (172.25.250.11)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:BCd8VCfEpGbUo3zb1De0hd1Q5nOMEzYNpMFu5o7j4Fg.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'serverb,172.25.250.11' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
root@serverb's password:
log.tar                               100%   11MB   20.8MB/s   00:00
[student@servera ~]$ ssh root@serverb "ls /logbackup"
root@serverb's password:
log.tar

Notes:

Specifying root@ is optional; if omitted, the current local user is used. The user must have appropriate permissions on the remote directory.

On first connection, SSH shows a security prompt; answer yes to proceed, as scp is part of OpenSSH.

Copy a Remote File to the Local Machine

[student@servera ~]$ scp root@serverb:/logbackup/log.tar backup/
root@serverb's password:
log.tar                               100%   11MB   25.5MB/s   00:00
[student@servera ~]$ ls backup/
log.tar

Recursive Copy of Directories

Use the -r option to copy entire directories recursively.

[student@servera ~]$ scp -r root@serverb:/var/log/ backup/
root@serverb's password:
... (list of files transferred) ...

Copy Between Two Remote Hosts

[student@workstation ~]$ scp student@servera:/home/student/log.tar student@serverb:/home/student/
student@serverb's password:
log.tar                               100%   670KB   19.6MB/s   00:00
Connection to servera closed.
[student@workstation ~]$ ssh student@serverb "ls -l"
total 672
-rw-rw-r--. 1 student student 686080 Nov 6 20:54 log.tar

This guide demonstrates the essential usage patterns of scp for secure file transfer in Linux environments.