Copy Files to a Remote Server with SCP on Ubuntu

What SCP is

SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) copies files between two computers through an encrypted SSH connection. In the examples below, the SSH service on the remote server listens on port 2222. If your server uses the default port 22, leave out the -P 2222 part.

Before you start

Make sure the SSH service runs on the server you copy to:

sudo systemctl status ssh

Copy one file

scp -P 2222 ~/Documents/backup-folder/file.txt user@server_IP:~/Downloads

What each part means:

• -P 2222 is the SSH port of the remote server (a capital P).
• ~/Documents/backup-folder/file.txt is the file on your computer.
• user@server_IP is the login on the remote server.
• :~/Downloads is the folder on the remote server.

Copy several files

Move to the folder first, then list the files:

cd ~/Documents/backup-folder/
scp -P 2222 file.txt image.jpg user@server_IP:~/Downloads

Files from different folders work too:

scp -P 2222 ~/Documents/backup-folder/file.txt ~/Documents/sample.doc user@server_IP:~/Downloads

Copy a whole folder

Add -r (recursive):

scp -r -P 2222 ~/Documents/backup-folder user@server_IP:~/Downloads

Check the result

List the files on the remote server:

ssh user@server_IP -p 2222 "ls -l ~/Downloads/"

Download from the server

Reverse the order to copy a file to your computer:

scp -P 2222 user@server_IP:~/Downloads/file.txt ~/Documents/

Quick recap

• scp -P port file user@host:/path copies a file.
• Add -r for folders.
• Use ssh ... "ls" to confirm the copy.