Copy files from Linux server to Mac desktop

Solution 1:

1. Install openSSH on the linux server. Assuming a debian based distribution, do this:

   sudo apt-get install ssh
   

2. Open a terminal and copy the files:

   i. From Linux to Mac (run from the Linux machine):

   scp filename.txt user@remote_server:/Users/YOURNAME/
   

   ii. From Linux to Mac (run from the Mac):

   scp user@remote_server:/Users/YOURNAME/filename.txt .
   

The general syntax of the scp command is the following.

1. To copy a file from the local server to the remote one:

   scp FILENAME user@remote_server:/remote/path/FILENAME
   

2. To copy a file from the remote server to the local one:

   scp user@remote_server:/remote/path/FILENAME /local/path/FILENAME
   

Solution 2:

You can use SSH File Transfer Protocol, sftp from your Mac terminal.

Steps:

1. sftp user@remote_server

Enter the user@remote_server's password:

2. get /remote/path/FILENAME /local/path/FILENAME

Just in case you are not certain about the file name, you can change to the source directory and list the segments in your source directory

3. cd /remote/path
4. ls
5. get FILENAME_2 /local/path/FILENAME_2

Solution 3:

WinSCP is a SFTP/SCP/FTP client for Windows.

Similar clients exist for the Mac - good examples are Transmit and Cyberduck.

Transmit and Cyberduck understand FTP, SFTP and WebDAV but it entirely depends how the linux server is set up whether you can access that particular folder with one of those services.