How to Transfer Files to a Linux VPS using SSH?

While file transfer between windows systems is easy and straightforward, it is a little tricky when it comes to transferring files between a windows system and a Linux VPS. However, it can be done easily using SSH. In Windows, you can just copy/paste a file or folder to a different Windows VPS or PC.

We will show you how to transfer files from a windows system to a Linux VPS running Ubuntu OS. We will be using PuTTy, a popular SSH client to transfer the files.

Here are the steps you need to follow:

Transferring files between a local PC and Linux VPS:

Step 1: Download PuTTy and PuTTy SCP (pscp).

• You need to download PuTTy, and PuTTY SCP (pscp) if you don’t have it in your system.
• Ensure pscp.exe is in your system’s PATH or navigate to its directory using the command prompt.

Step 2: Transferring files using “pscp”.

• Open Command Prompt. You can either search and open it or just use Windows key + R, then type cmd to open it.
• Now navigate to the directory containing the “pscp.exe”. You can do that by running this command in the CMD.
  $ cd C:\Program Files\PuTTY

• Use the following command to transfer the file to the Linux VPS

Command format:
$ pscp path\to\local\file username@VPS_IP:/path/to/remote/directory

To transfer C:\Users\YourUser\Documents\transfer.txt to /home/your_vps_user/ on the VPS, use this command:
$ pscp C:\Users\YourUser\Documents\transfer.txt
your_vps_user_name@VPS_IP:/home/your_vps_user/

If your VPS’s IP is: 184.164.81.56 and your files name is: transfer_test.txt and the VPS’s username is root, then the command will look like this:
$ pscp “C:\Users\farha\Documents\transfr\transfer_test.txt” root@184.164.81.56:/home/

If you want to move a folder to the linux VPS, then the command will look a bit different.

Command format:
pscp -r path\to\local\folder username@184.164.81.56:/path/to/remote/directory

If your folder’s name is “transfr”, then the actual command will look like this:
pscp -r “C:\Users\farha\Documents\transfr” root@184.164.81.56:/home/

Step 3: Verify if the file has been transferred successfully.

• If you want to check if the file has been transferred, then open PuTTy and login to the VPS.
• Then Navigate to the directory where you transferred it.
• Go to the directory by using $ cd home
• Then use this command: $ ls

If you want to remove the file, then use the “rm” command.

Step 4: Removing a file or directory if needed.

• $ rm tranfer_test.txt
• Then use this command: $ ls
  
  If you want to remove a directory, then use “rm -r” command
• $ rm -r transfr
• If you type $ ls again, you will no longer see the file or directory there.

This is how you can easily transfer files from your Windows VPS or PC to a Linux VPS via SSH.

Transferring files between two Linux VPS:

You can also transfer files from one Linux VPS to another Linux VPS. For that follow the instructions given below:

• Open Command Prompt
• Login to your Source VPS that contains your files, then type this command and hit enter:
  $ ssh root@source_vps_ip
  
• Enter your VPS password. (You may be asked to type yes or y to confirm the connection before entering the password).
• Determine which file you want to transfer and the location/directory of the file.
  
• You can use the “scp” command to move files between a source VPS and a destination VPS.
• General Command format:
  $ scp “/home/folder1/filename.ext” root@destination_ip:/home/folder2/filename.ext

Here “/home/folder1/filename.ext” is the location/directory of the file in the source VPS. This part is for the destination VPS “root@destination_ip:/home/folder2/filename.ext”.
Here root@destination_ip is the username@destination_ip, :”/home/folder2/filename.ext” is the destination directory to transfer the file/folder.

For Example, If the Destination VPS’s IP is: 170.205.52.101 and the username is “root”; and the file is in “home/transfr” directory in the Source VPS (184.164.81.56), then use the following command to transfer the file:
$ scp “/home/transfr/new_file.txt” root@170.205.52.101:/home/

If you check in this Destination VPS: 170.205.52.101 you will see the file there.

If you want to transfer the whole folder/directory, then just add “-r” after “scp”.
The command will look something like this:
$ scp -r “/home/transfr/” root@170.205.52.101:/home/

If you check again, you will see the folder there now.

You can transfer files from VPS (170.205.52.101) to VPS (184.164.81.56) too. Just change the IP and directory name accordingly.
$ scp “/file name” root@184.164.81.56:/home/
For folder/directory:
$ scp -r “/Folder or directory name/” root@184.164.81.56:/home/
This is how you can transfer files between two different Linux VPS easily.

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