SCP is a secure file copy command similar to the older, insecure remote copy tool called rcp. The files are transferred through an encrypted channel using SSH:

$ scp filename user@remotehost:/home/path 

This will prompt for a password. Like ssh, the transfer can be made password-less with the auto-login SSH technique. The Password-less auto-login with SSH recipe in this chapter explains SSH auto-login. Once SSH login is automated, the scp command can be executed without an interactive password prompt.

The remotehost can be an IP address or domain name. The format of the scp command is as follows:

$ scp SOURCE DESTINATION 

SOURCE or DESTINATION can be in the format username@host:/path:

$ scp user@remotehost:/home/path/filename filename 

The preceding command copies a file from the remote host to the current directory with the given filename.

If SSH is running at a different port than 22, use -oPort with the same syntax, sftp.