scp
like ssh
has an option -i
. In SSH that's documented as -i identity_file
, and I have a file which works with ssh user@dest -i my.key
to log in to a device without a password. SCP documents the same option as
-i identity_file
Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for public key authentication is read. This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
(emphasis mine). This documentation is clearly wrong, because scp my.file user@dest:/home/user/ -i my.key
fails with
my.key: Not a directory
No, it's indeed not a directory. Clearly scp
is not directly passing the argument to ssh
, it does a check first, and that check in scp
is probably the wrong way around (give an error if the argument is a directory)
Anyway, since scp -i
is broken, what can I use instead? SCP version is from Debian 10, man page is dated 2018, no --version
option available
scp
you are looking for, can you add result ofcommand -v scp
,whereis scp
andwhich scp
? do you still have an error using/usr/bin/scp -i my.key ...
? – Archemar Feb 23 at 15:11/usr/bin/scp
, right beside/usr/bin/ssh
. – MSalters Feb 23 at 16:00