Secure copy protocol
Wanted to learn about SCP because, today, I needed to move something from a server to my local machine and I forgot about the scp command which would have made it easier.
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References
Notes
Secure Copy protocol (SCP) is a means of securely transferring computer files between a local host and a remote host or between two remote hosts. It is based on the Secure Shell (ssh) protocol. "SCP" commonly refers to both the Secure Copy Protocol and the program itself. According to OpenSSH developers in April 2019, SCP is outdated [...] and they recommend the use of more modern protocols like SFTP and rsync for file transfer.- The SCP is a network protocol which supports file transfers between hosts on a network. SCOP uses Secure Shell (SSH) for data transfer and uses the same mechanisms for authentication, thereby ensuring the authenticity and confidentiality of the data in transit. A client can upload files and request files from the server.
- The remote SCP process can operate in one of two modes:
- source mode, which reads files (usually from disk) and sends them back to the client
- sink mode, which accepts the files sent by the client and writes them (usually to disk) on the remote host.
- The SCP program is a software tool implementing the SCP protocol as a service daemon or client. It is a program to perform secure copying.
- The most widely used SCP program is the OpenSSH command line
scpprogram, which is provided in most SSH implementations. Thescpprogram is the secure analog of thercpcommand.
Syntax
$ scp <LocalSourceFile> <user@remotehost:directory/TargetFile> # Copying file to remote host
$ # Copuing file from remote host and recursively copying folder from remote host
$ scp user@remotehost:directory/SourceFile LocalTargetFile
$ scp -r user@host:directory/SourceFolder LocalTargetFolder
- The Secure Copy Protocol implements file transfers only, GUI SCP clients are rare, as implementing it requires additional functionality.