To copy a directory and its contents from a remote machine to a local machine, you can use the scp command. Here's the basic syntax:
scp -r user@remote:/path/to/directory /path/to/local/directory
This will recursively copy the directory and its contents from the remote machine to the local machine. You'll need to replace user with the remote user account, remote with the IP address or hostname of the remote machine, and /path/to/directory with the path to the directory you want to copy. Similarly, replace /path/to/local/directory with the path to the local directory where you want to copy the files.
To copy a directory and its contents from the local machine to a remote machine, you can use the same scp command with the source and destination reversed:
scp -r /path/to/local/directory user@remote:/path/to/directory
This will copy the directory and its contents from the local machine to the remote machine.
In this tutorial I will share commands and examples to copy directory and contents from remote to local covering below scenarios:
- Using rsync remote to local server
- Using rsync to remote server
- Using scp from local to remote server
- Using scp from remote to local server
- scp recursive to copy directory and contents in Unix and Linux
- Unix and Linux copy file from ssh to local server
There are various commands available in Linux to copy directory and contents from one server to another in Linux. I have also written another article on similar topic with 5 commands to copy files from one server to another in Linux
In this article I will share the commands and arguments in Linux copy directory and files using scp from local to remote server, scp from remote to local server, rsync remote to local and rsync to remote server in Linux.
Copy directory and files from local to remote server
- You can use either
scporrsyncto copy folder and files from local to ssh or copy folder and files from ssh to local within in the same or different directory. - By default copy files and folders happen sequentially. If you wish to copy directory and contents in parallel then you must use pscp or pssh tool.
- You can also configure password less copy from local to remote or from remote to local, so you don't have to provide password every time you try to copy files and folder between servers. This is very useful for automation.
1. Linux copy directory and files with scp recursive
scpis a secure remote copy tool which is used to copy directory and contents between multiple Linux server.- To copy only files from local to remote server, you do not need any extra argument with scp.
- But to copy directory and contents we need scp recursive using "
-r" argument - If you use scp without '
-r' then the tool can only copy files (and not directories) from local to remote server or vice versa.
1.1: Keep "same" directory name with scp from local to remote server
In this scp syntax, we will keep the same directory name after copying directory and its contents to remote server
scp syntax:
scp -r <path to dir on localhost> user@<host>:<path on remote host>/
Let me copy all files in directory /tmp/deepak from local to remote server under /home/temp/ on the remote server.
Below are the /tmp/deepak directory content on my localhost, so I will copy all files in directory /tmp/deepak with scp recursive to remote server.
server1:~ # ls -l /tmp/deepak/ total 8 -rw-r----- 1 root root 0 May 10 16:38 file1 -rw-r----- 1 root root 0 May 10 16:38 file2 -rw-r----- 1 root root 0 May 10 16:38 file3 drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 May 10 16:39 test1 drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 May 10 16:39 test2
So next using scp recursive I will copy directory and contents from local to remote Linux server
In this example, the directory name will be same on local and remote server as we are not giving "/" after giving the directory name on localhost with scp (as highlighted).
server1:~ # scp -r /tmp/deepak temp@server2:/home/temp/
Password:
file1 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00
file3 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00
file2 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00
The ssh copy file from local to remote was successful. Next validate the transfer on the remote server
server2:~ # ll /home/temp/deepak/ total 8 drwxr-x--- 2 temp users 4096 May 10 16:50 test1 -rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:50 file1 drwxr-x--- 2 temp users 4096 May 10 16:50 test2 -rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:50 file3 -rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:50 file2
1.2: Change directory name with scp from local to remote server
If you wish to copy directory /tmp/deepak to remote server using a different directory name then use the below syntax
scp syntax:
scp -r <path to dir on localhost>/* user@<host>:<path on remote host>/
Here if you observe the scp syntax, I have provided "/*" at the end of directory name in localhost. So here we copy all files in directory /tmp/deepak and store it under /home/temp/rahul/ on remote server
So you see this forward slash (/) is very important for scp from local to remote server.
Execute the command in below format
server1:~ # scp -r /tmp/deepak/* temp@server2:/home/temp/rahul/ Password: file1 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00 file2 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00 file3 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00
All files under directory /tmp/deepak are successfully copied to remote server. Validate the content on server2 node.
server2:~ # ls -l /home/temp/rahul/ total 8 -rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:54 file1 -rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:54 file2 -rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:54 file3 drwxr-x--- 2 temp users 4096 May 10 16:54 test1 drwxr-x--- 2 temp users 4096 May 10 16:54 test2
2. Copy folder and files using rsync from local to remote server
rsyncis another better alternative to copy directory and contents from local to remote server in Linux and Unix.- It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between the source files and the existing files in the destination.
- Rsync is widely used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday use
- Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified time.
2.1: Keep "same" directory name with rsync from local to remote server
In this rsync syntax, we will change the directory name after copying directory and its contents to remote server. The logic remains the same for both scp and rsync
rsync syntax:
rsync -avz <path to dir on localhost> user@<host>:<path on remote host>/
In this example we will use rsync to copy directory and contents from (/tmp/deepak) to remote host under /home/temp
server1:~ # rsync -avz /tmp/deepak temp@server2:/home/temp/ Password: sending incremental file list deepak/ deepak/file1 deepak/file2 deepak/file3 deepak/test1/ deepak/test2/ deepak/test2/ sent 240 bytes received 81 bytes 49.38 bytes/sec total size is 0 speedup is 0.00
Follow rsync man page for more details. Here,
-a | --archive This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
everything (with -H being a notable omission).
-r | --recursive This tells rsync to copy directories recursively
-l | --links When symlinks are encountered, recreate the symlink on the destination.
-p | --perms This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination permissions to be the same as the source per‐
missions.
-t | --times This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with the files and update them on the remote system.
-g | --group This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination file to be the same as the source file.
-o | --owner This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be the same as the source file, but
only if the receiving rsync is being run as the super-user
-D The -D option is equivalent to --devices --specials.
-v | --verbose This option increases the amount of information you are given during the transfer.
-z, --compress With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the
amount of data being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
After rsync copy, validate the transfer on the remote server. So the directory name is same on local and remote server after transfer.
server2:/home/temp # ll /home/temp/deepak/ total 8 -rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:38 file3 -rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:38 file2 -rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:38 file1 drwxr-x--- 2 temp users 4096 May 10 16:39 test2 drwxr-x--- 2 temp users 4096 May 10 16:39 test1
2.2: Change directory name with rsync from local to remote server
Next we will use rsync to copy directory and contents of /tmp/deepak to a different folder on the remote server inside /home/temp/rahul.
So we will change the directory name from deepak on localhost to rahul on remote server
rsync syntax:
rsync -avz <path to dir on localhost>/* user@<host>:<path on remote host>/
Next execute the command in the below syntax
server1:~ # rsync -avz /tmp/deepak/* temp@server2:/home/temp/rahul/ Password: sending incremental file list file1 file2 file3 test1/ test2/ sent 195 bytes received 77 bytes 108.80 bytes/sec total size is 0 speedup is 0.00
After the transfer, validate the content on the remote node
server2:/home/temp # ls -l /home/temp/rahul/
total 8
-rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:38 file1
-rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:38 file2
-rw-r----- 1 temp users 0 May 10 16:38 file3
drwxr-x--- 2 temp users 4096 May 10 16:39 test1
drwxr-x--- 2 temp users 4096 May 10 16:39 test2
Copy directory and files from remote to local server
We can use the same tool scp recursive and rsync to copy directory and contents from remote to local server in Linux and Unix. Although the syntax to copy from ssh to local will vary for rsync and scp
1. Linux copy directory and files with scp recursive from remote to local server
We will again use scp recursive to perform scp from remote to local server in Linux and Unix
To use scp recursive we must use scp with -r argument.
1.1: Keep "same" directory name with scp from remote to local server
Check the scp syntax to copy files from remote to local server for more details
Syntax for scp:
scp -r <user>@<host>:<source path on remote host> <destination on localhost>/
To scp from remote to local server, below is the content on my remote host (server2) under /home/temp/deepak which I wish to copy on my localhost (server1) under /tmp/deepak
root@server2 ~]# ls -l /home/temp/deepak/ total 8 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 9 12:28 dir1 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 9 12:28 dir2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file1 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file3
Below is the command to copy directory and contents using scp from remote to local server in Linux and Unix
NOTE that I have not provided a forward slash (/) after the source directory to keep the same directory name after copy from remote to local server.
[root@server1 ~]# scp -r root@server2:/home/temp/deepak /tmp/ Password: file2 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00 file3 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00 file1 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00
Validate the content on localhost server1 under /tmp/ where we had copied the content. As you see we have directory deepak now on our localhost (server1)
[root@server2 ~]# ls -l /home/temp/deepak/ total 8 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 9 12:28 dir1 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 9 12:28 dir2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file1 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file3
1.2: Change directory name with scp from remote to local server
To copy directory and contents from remote to local server with different directory name then you must use forward slash carefully
We must also provide a local directory in the source path on (server1) under which you want to copy files and folders from remote server (server2)
Syntax for scp:
scp -r <user>@<host>:<source path on remote host>/* <destination on localhost>/
We will use this syntax in our next scp example:
[root@server1 ~]# scp -r root@server2:/home/temp/deepak/* /tmp/rahul/ file1 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00 file2 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00 file3 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00
Next verify the content on localhost server1 under /tmp/rahul. So the content of directory deepak from server2 is successfully copied under rahul on localhost
[root@server1 ~]# ls -l /tmp/rahul/ total 8 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 9 12:43 dir1 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 9 12:43 dir2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:43 file1 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:43 file2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:43 file3
2. Copy folder and files using rsync from remote to local server
We can also use rsync to copy directories and contents from remote to local server using the same arguments but different syntax
To copy files and folders from remote to local, you must execute rsync on localhost i.e. server1 for our environment
2.1: Keep "same" directory name with rsync from remote to local server
Notice the rsync syntax carefully, we have not used forward slash (/) in the source path, so the entire directory and contents will be copied
Similarly you can use below rsync command to copy directory from remote to local server
Syntax for rsync:
rsync -avz <user>@<host>:<source path on remote host> <destination on localhost>/
Using below command you can folder from remote to local server
[root@server1 ~]# rsync -avz root@server2:/home/temp/deepak /tmp/ receiving incremental file list deepak/ deepak/file1 deepak/file2 deepak/file3 deepak/dir1/ deepak/dir2/ sent 97 bytes received 284 bytes 762.00 bytes/sec total size is 0 speedup is 0.00
Verify the content of /tmp/deepak on server1
[root@server1 ~]# ls -l /tmp/deepak/ total 8 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 9 12:28 dir1 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 9 12:28 dir2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file1 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file3
2.2: Change directory name with rsync from remote to local server
Now to change the directory name or store the directory contents to a different folder from remote to local server (server1) we must use forward slash in the source path from remote server (server2)
Check the rsync syntax, as you see I have defined a forward slash in the source path from (server2)
Syntax for rsync:
rsync -avz <user>@<host>:<source path on remote host>/* <destination on localhost>/
In this rsync example I will copy all directory files from /home/temp/deepak/ on (server2) to /tmp/rahul on localhost (server1)
[root@server1 ~]# rsync -avz root@server2:/home/temp/deepak/* /tmp/rahul/ receiving incremental file list file1 file2 file3 dir1/ dir2/ sent 93 bytes received 238 bytes 662.00 bytes/sec total size is 0 speedup is 0.00
Validate the content on server1 under /tmp/rahul
[root@server1 ~]# ls -l /tmp/rahul/ total 8 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 9 12:28 dir1 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 9 12:28 dir2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file1 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 9 12:28 file3
So the transfer was successful, I hope I was able to explain the importance of forward slash while copying all files in directories for proper naming.
Lastly I hope the steps from the article to perform scp from local to remote server and scp from remote to local server with examples on Linux was helpful. So, let me know your suggestions and feedback using the comment section.
Thanks for the tutorial. But I think “/” is forward slash, NOT backslash.
I always get confuse with this 🙂
Thank you for highlighting this. I have corrected the article.
Hello,
I think there is a mistake in the content you provided. I noticed that there is wrong command in copying folder from remote to local system using rsync command. You can go through that and let me know if I’m correct.
Thanks for highlighting, the syntax reference was incorrect. I have corrected it.