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Secure Shell (SSH) versus Secure Copy (SCP)

Question: What is the difference between Secure Shell and Secure Copy Programs which are used in a Linux environment?
Secure Shell (SSH) and Secure Copy (SCP) are both programs used in a Linux environment for secure data transfer, but they serve different purposes and have different features. SSH is a secure protocol for remote login to a computer or server. It provides encrypted communication between the client and server, protecting sensitive data from eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, and other security threats. SSH allows users to remotely execute commands on the server and transfer files securely between the client and server using SCP.
SCP, on the other hand, is a file transfer program that uses the SSH protocol for secure file transfer between two computers. SCP provides a secure and reliable way to transfer files between Linux systems, and it is particularly useful when transferring large files or transferring files between remote systems. SCP can transfer files in either direction, from the client to the server or from the server to the client. The main difference between SSH and SCP is their primary use case. SSH is primarily used for remote login and executing commands on a remote computer, while SCP is used for transferring files between two computers. However, SCP can be considered a subset of SSH, as it uses the SSH protocol for secure file transfer. Both SSH and SCP provide a secure and reliable way to manage and transfer data in a Linux environment.

Secure Shell Secure Copy Program

Use secure shell and secure copy program

What is Secure Copy?
scp allows files to be copied to, from, or between different hosts. It uses ssh for data transfer and provides the same authentication and same level of security as ssh.

Examples

Copy the file "file1.txt" from a remote host to the local host
$ scp [email protected]:file1.txt /some/local/directory 
Copy the file "file1.txt" from the local host to a remote host

$ scp file1.txt [email protected]:/some/remote/directory  

Copy the directory "foo" from the local host to a remote host's directory "bar"

$ scp -r foo [email protected]:/some/remote/directory/bar  

Copy the file "file1.txt" from remote host "rh1.edu" to remote host "rh2.edu"

$ scp [email protected]:/some/remote/directory/file1.txt \
[email protected]:/some/remote/directory/  
Copying the files "foo.txt" and "bar.txt" from the local host to your home directory on the remote host
$ scp foo.txt bar.txt [email protected]:~  
Copy the file "file1.txt" from the local host to a remote host using port 2264
	
$ scp -P 2264 file1.txt [email protected]:/some/remote/directory  
#Copy multiple files from the remote host to your current directory on the local host
$ scp [email protected]:/some/remote/directory/\{a,b,c\} .  

$ scp [email protected]:~/\{foo.txt,bar.txt\} . 

The following screen illustrates the Secure Shell and Secure Copy Program.

Secure Shell and Secure Copy Program.