SCP(1)                      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.

     File names may contain a user and host specification to indicate that the
     file is to be copied to/from that host.  Local file names can be made
     explicit using absolute or relative pathnames to avoid scp treating file
     names containing ‘:’ as host specifiers.  Copies between two remote hosts
     are also permitted.

     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
             compression.

     -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 public
             key 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
                   PKCS11Provider
                   Port
                   PreferredAuthentications
                   Protocol
                   ProxyCommand
                   PubkeyAuthentication
                   RekeyLimit
                   RhostsRSAAuthentication
                   RSAAuthentication
                   SendEnv
                   ServerAliveInterval
                   ServerAliveCountMax
                   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      Quiet mode: disables the progress meter as well as warning and
             diagnostic messages from ssh(1).

     -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.

     -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.

     The scp utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

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 ⟨tri@iki.fi⟩
     Tatu Ylonen ⟨ylo@cs.hut.fi⟩

BSD                            February 8, 2010                            BSD