SSH SCP Local file to Remote in Terminal Mac Os X

At first, you need to add : after the IP address to indicate the path is following:

scp magento.tar.gz [email protected]:/var/www

I don't think you need to sudo the scp. In this case it doesn't affect the remote machine, only the local command.

Then if your user@xx.x.x.xx doesn't have write access to /var/www then you need to do it in 2 times:

Copy to remote server in your home folder (: represents your remote home folder, use :subfolder/ if needed, or :/home/user/ for full path):

scp magento.tar.gz [email protected]:

Then SSH and move the file:

ssh [email protected]
sudo mv magento.tar.gz /var/www

Just to clarify the answer given by JScoobyCed, the scp command cannot copy files to directories that require administrative permission. However, you can use the scp command to copy to directories that belong to the remote user.

So, to copy to a directory that requires root privileges, you must first copy that file to a directory belonging to the remote user using the scp command. Next, you must login to the remote account using ssh. Once logged in, you can then move the file to the directory of your choosing by using the sudo mv command. In short, the commands to use are as follows:

Using scp, copy file to a directory in the remote user's account, for example the Documents directory:

scp /path/to/your/local/file remoteUser@some_address:/home/remoteUser/Documents

Next, login to the remote user's account using ssh and then move the file to a restricted directory using sudo:

ssh remoteUser@some_address
sudo mv /home/remoteUser/Documents/file /var/www