# What is SCP?

If you need to transfer files quickly and securely between two machines using SSH, scp (Secure Copy Protocol) is the ideal command-line tool for the job. Designed for encrypted transfers, it is simple to use and highly effective, especially for one-off tasks.

The basic structure of an scp command is:

scp [options] <source> <destination>

# What do you need before using SCP?

Before transferring files with scp, you need to make sure you can authenticate to the remote server using SSH. This can be done in two main ways: