How can I get a folder from remote machine to local machine?

Question

I am trying scp -r usernameipaddress:/path /pathwhereIwanttocopy, but I am getting it as connection refused.

How can I get it? How can I get connected?

'on the machine of my college machine' what does that even mean? — Kellen Stuart, Sep 07 '16 at 13:22

Memento Mori · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-18T02:06:02.223

46

The -r flag should work. In your example you seem to be forgetting the name of the folder you want to copy. Try:

scp -r nameOfFolderToCopy username@ipaddress:/path/to/copy/

to copy a folder from your local computer to a remote one. Or

scp -r username@ipaddress:/path/of/folder/to/copy /target/local/directory

to copy a folder from a remote machine to your local one.

edited Feb 18 '13 at 02:06

answered Feb 18 '13 at 02:00

Memento Mori

Thanks for this! I'm having myself returning to this question over and over, maybe I should try to remember it. :| – kendepelchin Jan 24 '17 at 09:10

user000001 · Answer 2 · 2013-02-18T08:59:28.710

2

You may also want to check out rsync. It has lots of options for handling duplicates, permissions etc.

rsync -r username@computer:/path/to/source /path/to/dest

or for upload

rsync -r /path/to/source username@computer:/path/to/dest

edited Feb 18 '13 at 08:59

answered Feb 18 '13 at 02:16

user000001

Steve · Answer 3 · 2013-02-18T02:11:40.700

1

If you have a folder called working in your user directory, all you need is:

scp -r username@ipaddress:working ./

It's likely you'll get "Permission Denied" with this:

scp -r username@ipaddress:/working ./

Can you check to see if the ssh service is running on the remote machine? If you can login, try:

ps -aux | grep sshd

edited Feb 18 '13 at 02:11

answered Feb 18 '13 at 02:04

Steve

3 Answers3