SCP(1) User Commands SCP(1)

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] [-X sftp_option] source ... target

DESCRIPTION

scp copies files between hosts on a network.

scp uses the SFTP protocol over an ssh(1) connection 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. This mode is the default, but see also the -R option for
copying data directly between 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.

-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
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).

AddKeysToAgent
AddressFamily
BatchMode
BindAddress
BindInterface
CASignatureAlgorithms
CanonicalDomains
CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
CanonicalizeHostname
CanonicalizeMaxDots
CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
CertificateFile
ChannelTimeout
CheckHostIP
Ciphers
ClearAllForwardings
Compression
ConnectTimeout
ConnectionAttempts
ControlMaster
ControlPath
ControlPersist
DynamicForward
EnableEscapeCommandline
EnableSSHKeysign
EscapeChar
ExitOnForwardFailure
FingerprintHash
ForkAfterAuthentication
ForwardAgent
ForwardX11
ForwardX11Timeout
ForwardX11Trusted
GSSAPIAuthentication
GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
GatewayPorts
GlobalKnownHostsFile
HashKnownHosts
Host
HostKeyAlgorithms
HostKeyAlias
HostbasedAcceptedAlgorithms
HostbasedAuthentication
Hostname
IPQoS
IdentitiesOnly
IdentityAgent
IdentityFile
IgnoreUnknown
Include
KbdInteractiveAuthentication
KbdInteractiveDevices
KexAlgorithms
KnownHostsCommand
LocalCommand
LocalForward
LogLevel
LogVerbose
MACs
NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
NumberOfPasswordPrompts
ObscureKeystrokeTiming
PKCS11Provider
PasswordAuthentication
PermitLocalCommand
PermitRemoteOpen
Port
PreferredAuthentications
ProxyCommand
ProxyJump
ProxyUseFdpass
PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms
PubkeyAuthentication
RekeyLimit
RemoteCommand
RemoteForward
RequestTTY
RequiredRSASize
RevokedHostKeys
SecurityKeyProvider
SendEnv
ServerAliveCountMax
ServerAliveInterval
SessionType
SetEnv
StdinNull
StreamLocalBindMask
StreamLocalBindUnlink
StrictHostKeyChecking
SyslogFacility
TCPKeepAlive
Tag
Tunnel
TunnelDevice
UpdateHostKeys
User
UserKnownHostsFile
VerifyHostKeyDNS
VisualHostKey
XAuthLocation

-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 transferred through the local
host by default. This option instead copies between two remote
hosts 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.

-X sftp_option
Specify an option that controls aspects of SFTP protocol behaviour.
The valid options are:

nrequests=value
Controls how many concurrent SFTP read or write requests
may be in progress at any point in time during a download
or upload. By default 64 requests may be active
concurrently.

buffer=value
Controls the maximum buffer size for a single SFTP
read/write operation used during download or upload. By
default a 32KB buffer is used.

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 9.0, scp has used 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.

illumos October 4, 2025 illumos