What is a program similar to WinSCP?

Question

In Windows I use WinSCP to transfer files server-side. It has a very attractive feature that I like best: keeping remote folders up to date.

This means, whenever my local file is changed, WinScp will replace the same file on the server with this new file.

Could you suggest me software that support this feature?

sagarchalise · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-22T03:26:47.257

126

Nautilus the default file browser has the feature of mounting remote files.

Go to File Menu > Connect to Server..

enter image description here

Other than that filezilla and gftp support sftp.

edited Feb 22 '14 at 03:26

answered Jan 11 '12 at 18:42

sagarchalise

23,988

4

caja has this too! – j0h Feb 22 '14 at 00:11
but does help me to access files/folders as a sudo user. Is there any way to use sudo with Nautilius? – Rajat Gupta Mar 13 '14 at 05:58
Just do gksu nautilus to run nautilus as sudo user – sagarchalise Mar 13 '14 at 08:01
5

Nemo (default on Mint) supports this too (go to sftp://@) – personne3000 Aug 27 '14 at 06:21
On your file-system these magic sftp://... links are stored in: /run/user/1000/gvfs/sftp* (Of course your user id and sftp folder name will vary). – ThorSummoner Jul 21 '15 at 18:08
1

I am getting this page ( https://anonmgur.com/up/5a97de9b3038915650fde0a23f63b267.png ) instead of specifying new details. How do i correct it ? – maan81 Jul 18 '16 at 09:03
2

Same as @maan81 here... I only see Serve Addres, and a smb://foo.example.org Running Ubuntu 14.04 – nephewtom Sep 07 '16 at 08:39
5

filezilla still doesn't support scp protocol. Most people in this thread assume he was using winSCP program for SFTP, but he even tagged this question with SCP tag. – David162795 Jul 11 '17 at 09:13
The one bad thing about using gvfs / this method is that depending on your editor / application saving file changes.. Will re-create the file instead of just overwriting and this results in a change of ownership and permissions... Hence for my current project i'm searching for a filezilla alternative as filezilla requires me to alt tab to it and wait for it to detect a change and then ask me if i want to confirm the upload... THIS is a royal pain in the ... and slows my development speed masssively... – Angry 84 Aug 22 '17 at 02:12
How do I cd and navigate into this directory locally, in Terminal? Can I? – Rick Jul 04 '19 at 09:29
1

There is no "File Menu" any more... – Gustave Jan 27 '21 at 19:29

score 42 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 07 '12 at 18:20

42

Since you are familiar with Winscp on Windows, I suggest that you try filezilla

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.

You can also install with the command line. Open terminal Ctrl+Alt+T and run following command:

sudo apt-get install filezilla

Or search on Filezilla in Ubuntu Software Center.

When you add a host, be sure to change from FTP to SFTP, and change the port number to ssh port 22 (or other custom ssh port if different)

Make the account type interactive.

Enjoy.

edited Oct 07 '12 at 18:20

penreturns

5,950

answered Oct 07 '12 at 17:35

Penguinista

429

Unfortunately, filezilla still does not support ssh keys with passwords. – heroin Dec 17 '15 at 18:48
7

filezilla still doesn't support scp protocol. Most people in this thread assume he was using winSCP program for SFTP, but he even tagged this question with SCP tag. – David162795 Jul 11 '17 at 09:15
3

I came here for exactly this: looking for SCP. SFTP is ubiquitous in most file managers in linux nowadays. Other than using scp CLI and winscp over wine i see nothing close to answering the actual question. – brett Feb 26 '18 at 18:04
I wanted to follow up that filezilla does in fact support ssh keys with passphrases in them. Specifically, I am using it with a 2048bit rsa key using passphrases. However, it does whine a lot about ssh key formats. I am using version 3.28.0. – Matthew Sep 13 '18 at 01:41
worked fine for me on ec2 using sftp – Nidhin David May 13 '19 at 05:06
Sought to guify an scp command for our non-technical volunteers, FileZilla works like a boss. – fusion27 Sep 20 '20 at 14:12

score 25 · Answer 3 · edited May 28 '16 at 07:39

You could also use sshfs or rsync.

sshfs mounts your remote directory locally over ssh very similar to WinSCP and Nautilus.

The potential advantage of sshfs is that you can map users

sshfs -o idmap=server_user user@server:/directory ~/remote_directory

To automate the process, add an entry in fstab

sshfs#user@server:/directory /home/your_local_user/directory fuse idmap=user 0 0

See Ubuntu Wiki SSHFS

rsync will also sync files / directories and will work over ssh and has a graphical front end, grsync

See Ubuntu wiki rsync

Last you can edit remote files with vim (if you are interested)

vim scp://user@server//path_to/file_to_edit

score 13 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 11 '12 at 18:52

13

You can still use winscp under wine. I am doing the same, and it works very good.

answered Jan 11 '12 at 18:52

gajdipajti

3,451

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 11 '12 at 18:48

6

You want "scp". The original scp :-)

Oops, I spoke too soon... you have requirement of syncing as well. In that case, rsync.

However, scp is still good for scripts and automation.

answered Jan 11 '12 at 18:48

Angelo

789

3

I think someone using winscp would not be as excited to use scp in the command line. And one of the features one looks for in a gui sftp client is management of the different sessions one could use. – viyyer Jan 11 '12 at 18:51
@viyyer, yes you're right. – Angelo Jan 11 '12 at 18:54

score 5 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

5

Ubuntu:

Open Nautilus and type (in the link bar): sftp://user@server/

Kubuntu:

Open Konqueror and type (in the link bar): fish://user@server/

Xubuntu:

Open Thunar and type (in the link bar): sftp://user@server/

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

1

answered Jan 20 '12 at 08:27

daniele

115

1

He asked specifically about SCP, while all of these use sftp. These are not the same thing. Also, the question was specifically about a syncing feature which none of these provide. – Matthew Najmon Jun 02 '18 at 16:23
From winscp website: Free Award-Winning File Manager WinSCP is a popular SFTP client and FTP client...
He asked specifically abaut WinSCP (not SCP) and winscp is a Filemanager for ssh. Nautilus, Konqueror and Thunar are filemanager too.
– daniele Sep 05 '20 at 09:34
fwiw: (1) https://superuser.com/questions/134901/whats-the-difference-between-scp-and-sftp and (2) as of OpenSSH 8.0 "The scp protocol is outdated, inflexible and not readily fixed. We recommend the use of more modern protocols like sftp and rsync for file transfer instead" and (3) as of OpenSSH 9.0 "This release switches scp from using the legacy scp/rcp protocol to using the SFTP protocol by default." https://www.openssh.com/txt/release-9.0 – michael Jun 27 '22 at 08:35

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 11 '12 at 18:49

3

There are many different tools which would give a similar experience as winscp. I use filezilla for transferring files across ssh.

Nautilus as mentioned by @sagarchalise allows for connecting to server.

One of the things I use more often these days to access sftp is sshfs. I find it very convenient as it mounts the files as local file in the filesystem and transparently updates it on the remote server.

sshfs username@remotehostname.tld:/path/to/remote/files /path/to/local/mountpoint/

It lets me use all my usual tools assuming these file are local files.

answered Jan 11 '12 at 18:49

viyyer

413

1

This is very nice when you only can access thru SSH! I also recommend adding a couple of options: follow symlinks and reconnect (pretty much self explanatory, fixed freezing problems I had).
Final command would be: sshfs -o follow_symlinks -o reconnect username@remotehostname.tld:/path/to/remote/files /path/to/local/mountpoint/. Also recommend to create a simple bash script to mount it (and unmount it with fusermount -u /path/to/local/mountpoint/). – aesede Aug 26 '16 at 14:58

score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Sep 30 '18 at 11:52

2

Krusader is very similar if you need the side by side panel.

Simply install with

sudo apt install krusader

edited Sep 30 '18 at 11:52

abu_bua

10,783

answered Sep 30 '18 at 02:00

Bravis

21

1

what about "keeping remote folders up to date"? – Pierre.Vriens Sep 30 '18 at 06:49

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 19 '14 at 00:05

A very nice and powerful program, built over the rsync protocol, is Unison.

enter image description here

It has a very nice interface, and the client is available for at least Linux (more or less all variants) and Windows. The basic behavior is very easy to grasp, with a graphic interface and easy configuration, and if you need to do more complex things, you can manually edit the configuration files and/or script it.

It has been my backup/mirroring/uploading utility in the last five year at least, and never saw a bug or missed a file.

You can install it with

 sudo apt-get install unison-gtk

and for a smooth behavior, you should have configured a working connection with your endpoint (I normally use ssh connections).

score 2 · Answer 10 · edited Sep 22 '14 at 19:59

2

I recommend PCManFM sudo apt-get install pcmanfm

Just another File Manager but features a mini GUI for connections (in main menu Go --> Connect to server) and there you go. You can bookmark your connections and you can just right click files and chose "open with...".

edited Sep 22 '14 at 19:59

Alvar

17,058

answered Sep 22 '14 at 19:56

aesede

131

1

Not only PCManFM, but most File Managers support it: Nautilus, Nemo, Caja, Dolphin at least do. – s3lph Sep 22 '14 at 20:08
@the_Seppi: I agree, but I had problems with other file managers (mainly connection hanged and had to kill the manager). But didn't try Dolphin, will try it just to see – aesede Aug 26 '16 at 14:51

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Jan 11 '12 at 20:35

2

You can also try unison to help synchronize the two folders

answered Jan 11 '12 at 20:35

Jason Axelson

253

Looks like unison needs a client on the remote server too? :( – ThorSummoner Jul 21 '15 at 17:43

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 21 '14 at 23:54

0

I'd suggest SecPanel https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/saucy/secpanel/ especially if you're using 13.10.

answered Feb 21 '14 at 23:54

Paul Gregoire

523

score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Jun 07 '17 at 13:16

0

To run WinSCP under Linux (Ubuntu 12.04), follow these steps:

1) sudo apt-get install wine (run this one time only, to get 'wine' in your system, if you haven't it)

2) download "https://winscp.net/"

3) make a folder and put the content of zip file in this folder

4) open a terminal

5) type sudo su

6) type wine WinSCP.exe

Done! WinSCP will run like in Windows environment!

Best regards.

edited Jun 07 '17 at 13:16

Martin Prikryl

431

answered Apr 18 '14 at 22:39

NABA

17
1

7

Why run wine as super user? Don't do that. Skip step 5. – Eric Carvalho Apr 19 '14 at 00:24

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Aug 25 '15 at 13:47

I found one good standalone alternative, free, opensource, mucommander, but java based, your system need to have jvm to run it.

Why I went for mucommander (I am using RHEL6 with ristrictions)?
1st I tried to connect with nautilus, but it failed to connect.
2nd I tried to use various s/w like filezilla, Unison , but nothing was standalone, and faced many compilation and rights issue.

Ulitmately mucommander saved me.
Deep

What is a program similar to WinSCP?

14 Answers14

Ubuntu:

Kubuntu:

Xubuntu:

Linked