## Secure copy files across hosts

### 1.Transfer single file

Open GIT BASH (to use Secure Copy), type below commands.

```
$cd /e/xampp/htdocs/projname

$touch README.md
```

To copy single file from local machine to remote machine in target directory

```
$scp -v README.md user@xx.xxx.xxx.xx:/var/www/projname
```

To copy single file from remote machine to local machine in current working directory(.)

```
$scp -v user@xx.xxx.xxx.xx:/var/www/projname/file.txt .
```

### 2. Transfer multiple files

To copy multiple files from local directory to remote host

```
$scp foo.txt bar.txt user@xx.xxx.xxx.xx:/var/www/projname
```

To copy multiple files from remote host to current local directory

```
$scp user@xx.xxx.xxx.xx:/var/www/projname/\{foo.txt,bar.txt\} .
```

To copy an entire directory recursively from one host to another use the r switch and specify the directory

```
$scp -v -r ~/Downloads user@xx.xxx.xxx.xx:/var/www/projname
```

### 3. Speed up the transfer with compression

A super cool option to speed up the transfer to save time and bandwidth. All you need to do is use the C option to enable compression. The files are compressed on the fly and decompressed on the destination.

```
$scp -vrC ~/Downloads user@xx.xxx.xxx.xx:/var/projname

$scp -vrC user@xx.xxx.xxx.xx:/var/www/projname/dirname .
```

In the above example we moved the entire directory with compression enabled. The speed gain would depend on how much the files could be compressed.

### 4. Copy files across 2 remote hosts

```
$scp user1@remotehost1:/some/remote/dir/foobar.txt user2@remotehost2:/some/remote/dir/
```

#### Note:
	-v is verbose output (optional flag)
	-r is recursive flag
	-c is compression flag