Using the SCP Command in Linux

The SCP (Secure Copy) command is a powerful tool for securely transferring files between computers. It uses the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol to transfer files, ensuring that they are transferred securely over an encrypted connection. In this blog post, we’ll go over the basic usage of the SCP command and some of its advanced options.

Basic Usage

To use the SCP command, you need to specify the source file and the destination. Here’s the basic syntax:

scp [options] source destination

For example, to copy a file called “file.txt” from the local machine to a remote machine with the hostname “example.com”, you would run the following command:

scp file.txt example.com:

This will copy the file to the home directory on the remote machine. You can also specify a different destination directory on the remote machine by adding the path to the end of the hostname, like this:

This will copy the file to the home directory on the remote machine. You can also specify a different destination directory on the remote machine by adding the path to the end of the hostname, like this:

scp file.txt example.com:/path/to/destination

You can also specify IP in place of example.com.

scp file.txt 88.0.68.219:/path/to/destination

You can then specify a username as well with IP for authentication.

scp file.txt username@88.0.68.219:/path/to/destination

Options

The SCP command has a number of advanced options that you can use to customize the way it works. Some of the most useful options include:

• • -P: Specifies the port to use for the connection. This is useful if the remote machine is using a non-standard port for SSH.

• • -r: Recursively copies directories. This is useful for copying entire directory structures between machines.

• • -v: Verbose output. This displays detailed information about the progress of the file transfer.

• • -C: Enable compression. This can speed up file transfers over slow connections.

For a complete list of options, you can run the command scp --help.

Conclusion

The SCP command is a useful tool for securely transferring files between machines. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced user, learning how to use it will greatly expand your capabilities when it comes to managing and transferring files on a Linux system.