Progress bar for scp command

Question

Is there any way to display a progress bar while copying from server to local (or vice versa) using scp?

there's a script around but i have no idea how to make it work though — Uri Herrera, May 20 '11 at 10:46
You might be able to alter this script for a progress bar for 'cp'`: http://chris-lamb.co.uk/2008/01/24/can-you-get-cp-to-give-a-progress-bar-like-wget/ — Rinzwind, May 20 '11 at 11:57
scp -r doesn't show progress bar but it gives a percentage of each file — spyderman4g63, Jul 20 '15 at 20:31

score 140 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 03 '17 at 04:15

140

I don't think that this can be done with scp. Last time I needed something like this i.e. progress shown, I used rsync instead. It shows progress in a bar-like manner. See if it works for you.

You will need to use the --progress option of rsync. You can use the following command:

rsync -r -v --progress -e ssh user@remote-system:/address/to/remote/file /home/user/

edited Sep 03 '17 at 04:15

Zanna

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answered May 20 '11 at 11:55

binW

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I was going to post something similar but when I tested it, I just got 2741851 0% 700.39kB/s 0:17:21 and no graphical progress bar (what I think the OP wants). – Oli May 20 '11 at 11:58
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@Oli: I think its because you are copying a very small file. Copying ends before rsync can show progress. If you copy a bigger file then you should get a progress bar. – binW May 20 '11 at 12:11
5341184 7% 301.09kB/s 0:03:42
I am getting like this.But it showing the remaining time..really helpful – Abdul Shajin May 20 '11 at 12:17
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For anybody who was looking for cp with progress bar, rsync works great locally, so this answers that question also! (Just leave off the -e ssh user@remote-system: for a local copy and man rsync explains the many, many options) – sage Jun 21 '14 at 14:10
rsync works great and I use it for such things. If you get protocol version mismatch, make sure the target machine's .bashrc isn't printing anything to stdout. – Sridhar Sarnobat Jan 09 '16 at 01:58
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If you want to connect to a different SSH port than the default, you can use something like rsync -avz --progress -e 'ssh -p 1223' [email protected]:/foobar.txt ./my-local-copy.txt – damd Aug 23 '16 at 12:57
rsync -Pave "ssh -p 1223" [email protected]:/foobar.txt ./my-local-copy.txt – David Okwii Mar 14 '17 at 13:13
From man Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by default so i guess no need for -e ssh – To Kra Mar 22 '17 at 11:19
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why use rsync while you just need to add -v to scp – Samir Sabri Apr 21 '18 at 08:42
@SamirSabri, adding -v to scp shows the SSH debug messages too. That might be too much information for OP. – user38537 Mar 17 '19 at 02:55
FWIW, rsync outputs the progress to /dev/stderr, with each update to the progress being "overwritten" with \r. In my backup script where I have XFS dumps SCP to the backup host, I use 2>&1 to write the progress to the log file. cating or lessing the log file doesn't display the progress correctly, so using sed 's_\r_\n_g' XfsBackup.log shows each progress update on its own line. – user38537 Mar 17 '19 at 03:03

score 124 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 18 '17 at 07:50

124

The -v switch works fine.

Example:

5% 9232KB 357.5KB/s 07:48 ETA

answered Jan 18 '17 at 07:50

PJ Brunet

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It doesn't seem to work when using -3. – fuero Jul 18 '18 at 15:54
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@fuero man scp: "-3 Copies between two remote hosts are transferred through the local host. Without this option the data is copied directly between the two remote hosts. Note that this option disables the progress meter." – The Guy with The Hat Aug 23 '19 at 14:42
This also doesn't work if you have many smaller files – Hakaishin Jun 08 '21 at 08:04

score 32 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 08 '18 at 13:03

32

As of 2018, progress and ETA are shown by default and could be disabled by -q

answered Dec 08 '18 at 13:03

Milan Kerslager

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not on macos, lol! – Drachenfels Apr 22 '19 at 23:54
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With this, do you mean overall progress or on a per-file basis? I only see it on a per-file basis in my freshly installed Debian 9. – mazunki May 15 '19 at 08:06
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except when using -3 – törzsmókus Jul 14 '20 at 20:16
For some reason I can see the progress when I run scp in a terminal, but when it is running as part of a cloud-init script, I don't see any progress (with curl I did see progress)... any idea why? And how to show progress even in a cloud-init process? – drmrbrewer Dec 04 '21 at 14:41
@Drachenfels at least as of the latest macOS (Ventura at the moment), it does show the progress and ETA by default. – Ben Baron Jan 03 '23 at 20:03
....but not when you copy from 1 remote to another? – starbeamrainbowlabs May 04 '23 at 17:52
Xubuntu 20.04, copying locally from USB to USB device, with -pr and -l for rate limiting => no it doesn't, there's no progress displayed. – Don Joe Aug 08 '23 at 16:00

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered May 20 '11 at 11:44

I don't know how to do this in a command line. I'm sure it's possible but there is a graphical method for doing this.

Nautilus (the default file browser in Ubuntu) can mount ssh/sftp servers. They act like a local filesystem after that and you can copy files around like you normally would. And you get the usual progress bar that you would with a normal copy.

Look under the File menu for Connect to server...

Progress bar for scp command

4 Answers4

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