Ubuntu – Problem with scp syntax

command lineremote accessscpssh

I am trying to copy a .tar archive from remote server to my pc.

Directory of the archive that I want to copy:

canserhan@embserv:~/tar_files/rtl_archive.tar

Destination:

serhan@serhan-Lenovo-B560:~/Documents$

I connect to remote server and use the command:

canserhan@embserv:~/tar_files$ scp canserhan@embserv:~/tar_files/rtl_archive.tar serhan@serhan-Lenovo-B560:~Documents$
Password:
ssh: serhan-Lenovo-B560: Name or service not known
lost connection
canserhan@embserv:~/tar_files$

There must be something wrong with the scp syntax I am using. However I could not figure it out. Could you please help me?

Thanks.

Best Answer

As a rule if you wanna send something to the remote server via scp:

scp some_files.tar user@remoteHost:
scp some_files.tar user@remoteHost:Documents/newname.tar

But if you wanna download something:

scp user@remoteHost:Documents/foo.tar ~/Desktop
scp user@remoteHost:/any/other/dir/foo.tar .

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – copy with ssh with port other than 22

scp --help or man scp would have told you the option was -P port. You also need to declare this before the file arguments:

scp -P 2000 -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@remotebox.remotedomain.tld:~/.ssh/id_rsa_localbox.pub

I also wouldn't trust ~-relative links. Use full paths if you can.

But if you're copying IDs, ssh-copy-id also has an option to provide SSH connection options:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub '-p 2000 user@remotebox.remotedomain.tld'

Ubuntu – SCP with two different ports

You can use ~/.ssh/config to specify the ports to use for the hosts (and for setting many other nice things; check the man page man ssh_config):

# ~/.ssh/config

Host 67.12.21.133
  Port 6774

Host 67.129.242.40
  Port 6774

When doing this, you have to use the option -3 to scp, which copies the files through your local machine. Otherwise, scp issues the scp command via ssh on the first host, so it actually runs

 ssh -p 6774 denny@67.12.21.133 scp -rp /home/denny/testapp1.txt denny@67.129.242.40:

and then the ~/.ssh/config of the first remote host (67.12.21.133) is used instead of your local one.

When you have setup your ~/.ssh/config correctly, this should work:

scp -rp3 denny@67.12.21.133:/home/denny/testapp1.txt denny@67.129.242.40:

Of course, you can also copy the contents of the ~/.ssh/config file onto your first remote host, and then you can use scp without the -3 option, which will probably speeden up the transfer.

Or you can use the trick that scp uses and use such a command line:

ssh -p 6774 denny@67.12.21.133 scp -rp -P 6774 /home/denny/testapp1.txt denny@67.129.242.40:

(Note the different case of the port parameter for ssh and scp: ssh -p 6774 vs. scp -P 6774)

PS: I got this information from the OpenSSH bugzilla where I entered this as a bug: https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2020

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – copy with ssh with port other than 22

Ubuntu – SCP with two different ports

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