scp - Secure Copy in Linux
From the Linux Essential Commands cheat sheet · Networking · verified Jul 2026
scp - Secure Copy
Copy files between local and remote machines via SSH
bash
# Copy to remote
scp file.txt username@hostname:/path/to/destination/
# Copy from remote
scp username@hostname:/path/to/file.txt ./
# Copy directory
scp -r directory/ username@hostname:/path/
# With custom port
scp -P 2222 file.txt username@hostname:/path/✅ Uses SSH for secure file transfer
💡 -r copies directories recursively
🔍 -P (uppercase) specifies port for scp
networkscpcopyremote