I'm SSHing into a remote server on the command line, and trying to copy a directory onto my local machine with the scp command. However, the remote server returns this "usage" message:
[Stewart:console/ebooks/discostat] jmm% scp -p ./styles/
usage: scp [-1246BCEpqrv] [-c cipher] [-F ssh_config] [-i identity_file]
[-l limit] [-o ssh_option] [-P port] [-S program]
[[user@]host1:]file1 [...] [[user@]host2:]file2
[Stewart:console/ebooks/discostat] jmm%
I'd like to be able to transfer files in both directions. From what I read, I thought the above command would work for downloading, and scp -p [localpath] [remotepath] for uploading?
You need to specify both source and destination, and if you want to copy directories you should look at the -r option.
So to recursively copy /home/user/whatever from remote server to your current directory:
scp -pr user@remoteserver:whatever .
You need to scp something somewhere. You have scp ./styles/, so you're saying secure copy ./styles/, but not where to copy it to.
Generally, if you want to download, it will go:
# download: remote -> local
scp user@remote_host:remote_file local_file
where local_file might actually be a directory to put the file you're copying in. To upload, it's the opposite:
# upload: local -> remote
scp local_file user@remote_host:remote_file
If you want to copy a whole directory, you will need -r. Think of scp as like cp, except you can specify a file with user@remote_host:file as well as just local files.
Edit: As noted in a comment, if the usernames on the local and remote hosts are the same, then the user can be omitted when specifying a remote file.
You need to specify both source and destination, and if you want to copy directories you should look at the -r option.
So to recursively copy /home/user/whatever from remote server to your current directory:
scp -pr user@remoteserver:whatever .
You need to scp something somewhere. You have scp ./styles/, so you're saying secure copy ./styles/, but not where to copy it to.
Generally, if you want to download, it will go:
# download: remote -> local
scp user@remote_host:remote_file local_file
where local_file might actually be a directory to put the file you're copying in. To upload, it's the opposite:
# upload: local -> remote
scp local_file user@remote_host:remote_file
If you want to copy a whole directory, you will need -r. Think of scp as like cp, except you can specify a file with user@remote_host:file as well as just local files.
Edit: As noted in a comment, if the usernames on the local and remote hosts are the same, then the user can be omitted when specifying a remote file.
You need to specify both source and destination, and if you want to copy directories you should look at the -r option.
So to recursively copy /home/user/whatever from remote server to your current directory:
scp -pr user@remoteserver:whatever .
If copying to/from your desktop machine, use WinSCP, or if on Linux, Nautilus supports SCP via the Connect To Server option.
scp can only copy files to a machine running sshd, hence you need to run the client software on the remote machine from the one you are running scp on.
If copying on the command line, use:
# copy from local machine to remote machine
scp localfile user@host:/path/to/whereyouwant/thefile
or
# copy from remote machine to local machine
scp user@host:/path/to/remotefile localfile
No, you still need to scp [from] [to] whichever way you're copying
The difference is, you need to scp -p server:serverpath localpath
You need to scp something somewhere. You have scp ./styles/, so you're saying secure copy ./styles/, but not where to copy it to.
Generally, if you want to download, it will go:
# download: remote -> local
scp user@remote_host:remote_file local_file
where local_file might actually be a directory to put the file you're copying in. To upload, it's the opposite:
# upload: local -> remote
scp local_file user@remote_host:remote_file
If you want to copy a whole directory, you will need -r. Think of scp as like cp, except you can specify a file with user@remote_host:file as well as just local files.
Edit: As noted in a comment, if the usernames on the local and remote hosts are the same, then the user can be omitted when specifying a remote file.
If copying to/from your desktop machine, use WinSCP, or if on Linux, Nautilus supports SCP via the Connect To Server option.
scp can only copy files to a machine running sshd, hence you need to run the client software on the remote machine from the one you are running scp on.
If copying on the command line, use:
# copy from local machine to remote machine
scp localfile user@host:/path/to/whereyouwant/thefile
or
# copy from remote machine to local machine
scp user@host:/path/to/remotefile localfile
No, you still need to scp [from] [to] whichever way you're copying
The difference is, you need to scp -p server:serverpath localpath
You need to scp something somewhere. You have scp ./styles/, so you're saying secure copy ./styles/, but not where to copy it to.
Generally, if you want to download, it will go:
# download: remote -> local
scp user@remote_host:remote_file local_file
where local_file might actually be a directory to put the file you're copying in. To upload, it's the opposite:
# upload: local -> remote
scp local_file user@remote_host:remote_file
If you want to copy a whole directory, you will need -r. Think of scp as like cp, except you can specify a file with user@remote_host:file as well as just local files.
Edit: As noted in a comment, if the usernames on the local and remote hosts are the same, then the user can be omitted when specifying a remote file.
You need to specify both source and destination, and if you want to copy directories you should look at the -r option.
So to recursively copy /home/user/whatever from remote server to your current directory:
scp -pr user@remoteserver:whatever .
No, you still need to scp [from] [to] whichever way you're copying
The difference is, you need to scp -p server:serverpath localpath
Source: Stackoverflow.com