Linux scp command man page

This page shows the contents of the Linux scp command man page. The scp command is used to perform a "secure" copy of one or more files between two Linux or Unix systems.

This scp command output was created on a CentOS Linux system. You can see this same scp command man page output by entering this command on your own Linux system:

man scp

Linux scp command man page

SCP(1)			  BSD General Commands Manual			SCP(1)

NAME
     scp - secure copy (remote file copy program)

SYNOPSIS
     scp [-1246BCpqrv] [-c cipher] [-F ssh_config] [-i identity_file]
	 [-l limit] [-o ssh_option] [-P port] [-S program]
	 [[user@]host1:]file1 [...] [[user@]host2:]file2

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 ssh(1).	 Unlike rcp(1), scp will ask for passwords or passphrases if
     they are needed for authentication.

     Any file name may contain a host and user specification to indicate that
     the file is to be copied to/from that host.  Copies between two remote
     hosts are permitted.

     When copying a source file to a target file which already exists, scp
     will replace the contents of the target file (keeping the inode).

     If the target file does not yet exist, an empty file with the target file
     name is created, then filled with the source file contents.  No attempt
     is made at "near-atomic" transfer using temporary files.

     The options are as follows:

     -1	     Forces scp to use protocol 1.

     -2	     Forces scp to use protocol 2.

     -4	     Forces scp to use IPv4 addresses only.

     -6	     Forces scp to use IPv6 addresses only.

     -B	     Selects batch mode (prevents asking for passwords or
	     passphrases).

     -C	     Compression enable.  Passes the -C flag to ssh(1) to enable com-
	     pression.

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

     -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 RSA
	     authentication is read.  This option is directly passed to
	     ssh(1).

     -l limit
	     Limits the used bandwidth, specified in Kbit/s.

     -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
		   ChallengeResponseAuthentication
		   CheckHostIP
		   Cipher
		   Ciphers
		   Compression
		   CompressionLevel
		   ConnectionAttempts
		   ConnectTimeout
		   ControlMaster
		   ControlPath
		   GlobalKnownHostsFile
		   GSSAPIAuthentication
		   GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
		   HashKnownHosts
		   Host
		   HostbasedAuthentication
		   HostKeyAlgorithms
		   HostKeyAlias
		   HostName
		   IdentityFile
		   IdentitiesOnly
		   KbdInteractiveDevices
		   LogLevel
		   MACs
		   NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
		   NumberOfPasswordPrompts
		   PasswordAuthentication
		   Port
		   PreferredAuthentications
		   Protocol
		   ProxyCommand
		   PubkeyAuthentication
		   RekeyLimit
		   RhostsRSAAuthentication
		   RSAAuthentication
		   SendEnv
		   ServerAliveInterval
		   ServerAliveCountMax
		   SmartcardDevice
		   StrictHostKeyChecking
		   TCPKeepAlive
		   UsePrivilegedPort
		   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 modes of the file in
	     rcp(1).

     -p	     Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from the
	     original file.

     -q	     Disables the progress meter.

     -r	     Recursively copy entire directories.

     -S program
	     Name of program to use for the encrypted connection.  The program
	     must understand ssh(1) options.

     -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.

DIAGNOSTICS
     scp exits with 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.

SEE ALSO
     rcp(1), sftp(1), ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-agent(1), ssh-keygen(1),
     ssh_config(5), sshd(8)

HISTORY
     scp is based on the rcp(1) program in BSD source code from the Regents of
     the University of California.

AUTHORS
     Timo Rinne
     Tatu Ylonen

BSD			      September 25, 1999			   BSD

This scp command man page is included here so we can reference it directly from other scp command tutorials.