scp from remote Linux to local Windows with spaces in local path

To push a file from a Linux terminal to a Windows system, the following two examples work just fine.

scp /home/user.name/file.html [email protected]:/C:/Users/user.name/test_folder/file.html

scp /home/user.name/file.html [email protected]:"/C:/Users/user.name/test_folder/file.html"

I need to do this where the local folder has spaces and I cannot change the name, say /C:/Users/user.name/test folder/

All of the following fail with the message scp: ambiguous target

scp /home/user.name/file.html [email protected]:"/C:/Users/user.name/test folder/file.html"

scp /home/user.name/file.html [email protected]:"/C:/Users/user.name/test\ folder/file.html"

scp /home/user.name/file.html [email protected]:"'/C:/Users/user.name/test\ folder/file.html'"

scp /home/user.name/file.html [email protected]:"/C:/Users/user.name/test\\ folder/file.html"

scp /home/user.name/file.html [email protected]:"'/C:/Users/user.name/test\\ folder/file.html'"

scp /home/user.name/file.html [email protected]:"/C:/Users/user.name/test\\\ folder/file.html"

scp /home/user.name/file.html [email protected]:"'/C:/Users/user.name/test\\\ folder/file.html'"

How do I get this to work?

Solution 1:

• Try using quotes ' or Double quotes " around complete argument.

  As suggested by @dirkt in comments Quoting the complete path argument for the ssh host should do the work. That makes your command like this :

  scp /home/user.name/file.html '[email protected]:/C:/Users/user.name/test folder/'
  

• Use escape sequence for space in between name of folder.

  You can use \ (backslash with a space) that is escape sequence for a space. That makes your command like this :

  scp /home/user.name/file.html '[email protected]:/C:/Users/user.name/test\ folder/'
  

  Notice the \ with a space in between test & folder that makes it test\ folder.

• It maybe the case that you need to escape twice as It is escaped first locally and then on the remote end. In that case you can write like this :

  1. "'complete argument'" inside quotes within double quotes like this :

     "'[email protected]:/C:/Users/user.name/test folder/'"
     

     OR

  2. Escape spaces and quote complete argument like this :

     '[email protected]:/C:/Users/user.name/test\ folder/'
     

     OR

  3. Escape twice directly using escape sequence like this

     [email protected]:/C:/Users/user.name/test\\ folder/
     

Feel free to add-in more details.

Solution 2:

Tried all the options above to scp from CentOS client to Windows 7 (SP1), but without success.

This one worked for me though:

$ scp /tmp/lala 'win7@<IP>:"/Users/win7/Documents/TestComplete 14 Projects"'