How to get the scp command to overwrite the destination folder

bashscpssh

I am using the scp command to copy some files to a remote pc, as you do with scp 🙂

I note that the default behaviour of an scp copy for files is to overwrite any existing files. Now I want to copy a folder so I do basically the same thing:

scp -r <source_path> user@myOtherPc:<dest_path>

Where the parts in <> are my folder paths. However when I run this I get the message "file exists". Is there a way around this? some sort of force over-write?

Thanks,
Fodder

Best Answer

Like Levans, I have been unable to replicate this, but have you considered using rsync over ssh instead? If you're copying large numbers of files, rsync may be a better option than scp. There are a number of good guides to it online, such as these:

http://troy.jdmz.net/rsync/index.html https://calomel.org/rsync_tips.html

That first link deals with automated backups via cron, so some of the instructions (like creating an ssh key without a passphrase) may not be relevant to you.

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Overwrite if newer : SCP folder transfer

I think you have a lot of misguided thoughts here.

First... Winscp uses native ssh to copy files. It does nothing different than the linux command scp. There is no way scp will work... when winscp does not. winscp is a windows interface that uses a basic scp client to connect to a ssh server to copy files.

Second... In Linux-based OSes, there is no concept of a "C drive". You have the root (/) and directories under root. A block device is mounted to root, and various other block devices can be mounted to directories that fall under root.

The syntax for "scp" is as follows:

scp from_where to_where

Both the from and to can be local directories like /some/local/directory or a remote directory like user@some.server:/some/remote/directory

the -r just means to "recurse" directories. (copy everything from that directory and everything beneath it.)

in a windows environment with a "C drive" typically you'd use putty's pscp command and do something like this:

pscp -r c:\some\directory username@some.server:/some/path/to/where/you/want/it

Linux – Can’t scp file from local to remote host – Permission denied

If you login as The root then root has all permissions allowed, regardless permissions on any directory (exclusion can be only if directory has system immutable flag over chflags(1))

You either providing a wrong password or remote host used public key authentication only.

Best Answer

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Overwrite if newer : SCP folder transfer

Linux – Can’t scp file from local to remote host – Permission denied

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