SCP (Secure Copy Protocol)

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) :: WinSCP</title> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://winscp-static-746341.c.cdn77.org/assets/css/bootstrap-modified.css?v=101" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://winscp-static-746341.c.cdn77.org/assets/js/slick/slick.css?v=101" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://winscp-static-746341.c.cdn77.org/assets/css/styles-all.css?v=101" /> <link rel="schema.DCTERMS" href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" /> <meta name="robots" content="index,follow" /> <meta name="DCTERMS.modified" content="2021-06-07T21:55:15+0000" /> <meta name="generator" content="DokuWiki" /> <link rel="start" href="/eng/docs/" /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://winscp.net/eng/docs/scp" /> <meta name="keywords" content="file manager,sftp client,scp client,ftp client,windows,secure file transfer,ftp,freeware" /> <meta name="description" 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16.467l-5.136-5.146zm-6.174 0c-2.563 0-4.632-2.068-4.632-4.63 0-2.563 2.07-4.632 4.632-4.632s4.63 2.07 4.63 4.632-2.068 4.63-4.63 4.63z" fill="#FFF" fill-rule="evenodd" opacity=".5"/> <image src="/assets/images/search.png" xlink:href="" /> </svg> </button> </span> </div> <input type="hidden" name="refinement" value="Documentation" /> </form> <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle hidden-sm-block" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#search" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="search">Close</button> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <main class="container main-content-container cols-2"> <div class="row"> <section class="col-md-9">  <div class="context"><a href="/eng/docs/start" class="context" title="Documentation">Documentation</a> » Getting Started » <a href="/eng/docs/protocols" class="context" title="Protocols">Protocols</a> » </div> <header class="content-editable header-and-meta"> <h1 id="scp">SCP (Secure Copy Protocol)</h1> <div class="secedit"><form class="button" method="post" action="/eng/docs/scp"><input type="hidden" name="do" value="edit" /><input type="hidden" name="rev" value="" /><input type="submit" value="Edit this page" class="button" title="Edit this page (Alt+Shift+E)" accesskey="e" /></form></div> </header> <p> SCP is an older protocol but almost universally supported on Unix-like platforms as part of an <abbr title="Secure Shell">SSH</abbr> protocol suite. It is rarely supported on other platforms. SCP is a descendant of the ancient “rcp.” </p> <p> As a <abbr title="Graphical User Interface">GUI</abbr> client, WinSCP requires that the server provide more functionality than just SCP (which can only transfer files). See <a href="/eng/docs/requirements#scp">requirements</a> for more details. </p> <p> Where possible, <a href="/eng/docs/sftp">SFTP protocol</a> is preferred alternative. </p> <div class="promo-block"> <p class="promo-block-content"> <em>Advertisement</em> <script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block;min-height: 90px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1682759925159355" data-ad-slot="5314776528" data-ad-format="auto"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </p> </div>   </section> <aside class="col-md-3 sidebar"> <section class="donations"> <div class="row"> <h2 class="pull-left">Contribute</h2> <p class="pull-right"> <img src="https://winscp-static-746341.c.cdn77.org/assets/images/paypal.svg?v=101" alt="PayPal" style="height: 1.5em; vertical-align: -0.4em; padding-left: 0.1em;"/> </p> </div> <p> <a href="/eng/donate.php" class="btn btn-primary btn-lg">Donate</a> </p> <ul 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