Do you use FTP to transfer files?  Not me.. at least not in a long time.  There is an easier way that requires less setup on the server, less open connections and better security.  I am talking about “scp”, of course.  Instead of installing and running an FTP daemon, you can use your ssh daemon to accept the connections and transfer the files.  Since I set up SSH for terminal sessions on all my servers, I figured I may as well use the port for file transfer as well.  I transfer files using 2 methods that interact with SSH.

1.  Filezilla

I am sure you have probably heard of this one.  Filezilla allows you to transfer files over SFTP (SSH FTP).  I have my connections saved, so in just a few clicks with the Filezilla GUI, I can transfer a file from a remote server to my local box.  Note that scp is faster than SFTP, so when I am transferring a large file, I use scp instead.

2. scp command line

If I am transferring from remote server to remote server (or large files remote to local) I use scp.  The commands are simple.

scp command example for transferring a file from some other server to the server you are logged into (INBOUND):

scp username@some-other-server.com:/path/to/remote/file.txt /path/to/put/file/on/local

scp command example for transferring a file from the server you are logged into over to some other server (OUTBOUND):

scp /path/to/local/file.txt username@some-other-server.com:/path/to/output/remote/file