Copy a whole directory recursively from local to a remote server with scp -r

domain: OpenSSH scp · 4 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk

Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Documented steps

scp -r /local/dir user@host:/remote/path/
Add -p to preserve modification times and permission bits across the recursive copy
Add -C to enable compression over the wire (often helps text/source trees)
Use -P <port> when the remote sshd listens on a non-default port

Known gotchas

scp -r follows symbolic links (unlike sftp -r, which does not)
A trailing slash on source or destination changes whether the dir is created by name or its contents are copied
For large directory trees with frequent small changes, prefer rsync, which transfers only changed blocks and supports resume

OpenSSH scp · 5 steps · unrated

Mirror a local directory to a remote server over SSH with rsync, excluding files and deleting extraneous ones

rsync · 4 steps · unrated

Download a remote directory tree with sftp in batch mode using get -R

OpenSSH sftp · 4 steps · unrated

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Copy a whole directory recursively from local to a remote server with scp -r

Documented steps

Known gotchas

Related routes

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