How do I copy a folder from remote to local host using scp
?
I use ssh
to log in to my server.
Then, I would like to copy the remote folder foo
to local /home/user/Desktop
.
How do I achieve this?
mc
: TAB
, cd sh://USER@HOST
, use the mc shortcuts, cd
out when done.
mc
it's easier to use Left/Right on the menu > Shell link where you can type the alias you have in your ~/.ssh/config
e.g. myhost:
> OK
scp -r user@your.server.example.com:/path/to/foo /home/user/Desktop/
By not including the trailing '/' at the end of foo, you will copy the directory itself (including contents), rather than only the contents of the directory.
From man scp
(See online manual)
-r Recursively copy entire directories
To use full power of scp you need to go through next steps:
Public key authorisation Create SSH aliases
Then, for example if you have this ~/.ssh/config:
Host test
User testuser
HostName test-site.example
Port 22022
Host prod
User produser
HostName production-site.example
Port 22022
you'll save yourself from password entry and simplify scp syntax like this:
scp -r prod:/path/foo /home/user/Desktop # copy to local
scp -r prod:/path/foo test:/tmp # copy from remote prod to remote test
More over, you will be able to use remote path-completion:
scp test:/var/log/ # press tab twice
Display all 151 possibilities? (y or n)
For enabling remote bash-completion you need to have bash-shell on both <source>
and <target>
hosts, and properly working bash-completion. For more information see related questions:
How to enable autocompletion for remote paths when using scp?
SCP filename tab completion
To copy all from Local Location to Remote Location (Upload)
scp -r /path/from/local username@hostname:/path/to/remote
To copy all from Remote Location to Local Location (Download)
scp -r username@hostname:/path/from/remote /path/to/local
Custom Port where xxxx
is custom port number
scp -r -P xxxx username@hostname:/path/from/remote /path/to/local
Copy on current directory from Remote to Local
scp -r username@hostname:/path/from/remote .
Help:
-r Recursively copy all directories and files Always use full location from /, Get full location/path by pwd scp will replace all existing files hostname will be hostname or IP address if custom port is needed (besides port 22) use -P PortNumber . (dot) - it means current working directory, So download/copy from server and paste here only.
Note: Sometimes the custom port will not work due to the port not being allowed in the firewall, so make sure that custom port is allowed in the firewall for incoming and outgoing connection
pwd
to get location and use same
What I always use is:
scp -r username@IP:/path/to/server/source/folder/ .
. (dot): it means current folder
. so copy from server and paste here only.
IP: can be an IP address like 125.55.41.311
or it can be host like ns1.mysite.example
.
.
refers to current directory!
Better to first compress catalog on remote server:
tar czfP backup.tar.gz /path/to/catalog
Secondly, download from remote:
scp user@your.server.example.com:/path/to/backup.tar.gz .
At the end, extract the files:
tar -xzvf backup.tar.gz
-C
flag, like scp -C a@b:bigfile .
.
Typical scenario,
scp -r -P port username@ip:/path-to-folder .
explained with an sample,
scp -r -P 27000 abc@10.70.12.12:/tmp/hotel_dump .
where,
port = 27000
username = "abc" , remote server username
path-to-folder = tmp/hotel_dump
. = current local directory
And if you have one hell of a files to download from the remote location and if you don't much care about security, try changing the scp default encryption (Triple-DES) to something like 'blowfish'.
This will reduce file copying time drastically.
scp -c blowfish -r user@your.server.example.com:/path/to/foo /home/user/Desktop/
arcfour
in stead of blowfish
, but it has security flaws.
Go to Files on your unity toolbar
https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZD6gk.png
Press Ctrl + l and write here_goes_your_user_name@192.168.10.123
The 192.168.1.103 is the host that you want to connect.
The here one example
https://i.stack.imgur.com/TFZ4B.png
In case you run into "Too many authentication failures", specify the exact SSH key you have added to your severs ssh server:
scp -r -i /path/to/local/key user@remote.tld:/path/to/folder /your/local/target/dir
The question was how to copy a folder from remote to local with scp
command.
$ scp -r userRemote@remoteIp:/path/remoteDir /path/localDir
But here is the better way for do it with sftp
- SSH File Transfer Protocol (also Secure File Transfer Protocol, or SFTP) is a network protocol that provides file access, file transfer, and file management over any reliable data stream.(wikipedia).
$ sftp user_remote@remote_ip
sftp> cd /path/to/remoteDir
sftp> get -r remoteDir
Fetching /path/to/remoteDir to localDir 100% 398 0.4KB/s 00:00
For help about sftp
command just type help
or ?
.
I don't know why but I was had to use local folder before source server directive . to make it work
scp -r . root@888.888.888.888:/usr/share/nginx/www/example.org/
root@
For Windows OS, we used this command.
pscp -r -P 22 hostname@IP:/path/to/Downloads ./
Success story sharing
-C
flag adds compression and the-c
flag lets you pass in other cipher types for better performance, likescp -c blowfish a@b:something .
as seen in dimuthu's answerDesktop/foo
or will you haveDesktop/allcontentsofFooGohere
scp seems to act weird sometimes to me it does one thing then anotherscp -r user@your.server.example.com:/path/to/foo /home/user/Desktop/
you should end up withDesktop/foo
. Withscp -r user@your.server.example.com:/path/to/foo/. /home/user/Desktop/
you will end up with the contents offoo
inDesktop
and all the sub-dirs offoo
strewn underDesktop