How to use SCP Command to Copy Directory

SCP - OpenSSH secure file copy is a command that you can make use of to download or upload files and directories to a remote location.

SCP lets you copy files between hosts on a network.

If you want to copy (download) a complete directory and sub-directories from a remote server to your local system you can make use of the SCP command in the below way,

Example: Downloading/Copying files from remote server to your system

% scp -r 

user-name@ssh.remote-location-url-and-domain/remote/dir/path 

/local/destination/path/to/copy/directory/ 

As you can see in the above example, -r option lets you copy the entire directory.

% scp -r user-name@ssh.remote-location-url/remote/dir/path .

Example: Downloading/Copying files from your system to a remote server

% scp -r 

/local/path/to/copy/directory/ 
user-name@ssh.remote-location-url-and-domain/remote/dir/path