How to pass password to scp?
I know it is not recommended, but is it at all possible to pass the user's password to scp?
I'd like to copy a file via scp as part of a batch job and the receiving server does, of course, need a password and, no, I cannot easily change that to key-based authentication.
Solution 1:
Use sshpass:
sshpass -p "password" scp -r [email protected]:/some/remote/path /some/local/path
or so the password does not show in the bash history
sshpass -f "/path/to/passwordfile" scp -r [email protected]:/some/remote/path /some/local/path
The above copies contents of path from the remote host to your local.
Install :
- ubuntu/debian
apt install sshpass
- centos/fedora
yum install sshpass
- mac w/ macports
port install sshpass
- mac w/ brew
brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kadwanev/bigboybrew/master/Library/Formula/sshpass.rb
Solution 2:
just generate a ssh key like:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]"
copy the content of ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
and lastly add it to the remote machines ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
make sure remote machine have the permissions 0700 for ~./ssh folder
and 0600 for ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
Solution 3:
If you are connecting to the server from Windows, the Putty version of scp ("pscp") lets you pass the password with the -pw
parameter.
This is mentioned in the documentation here.