Using SCP and SUDO to copy a file to a remote host into a folder which only has root permissions.

The Linux utility scp is great for copying files to remote hosts. But very often you need to copy files into folders that only have root permissions, like  /etc , /var , /bin .   And very often root login via ssh in not allowed. And scp itself does have an option for sudo on the remote host. What a pain!

  Ahhh... Here is a solution :  run the scp command-- via ssh-- on the remote host instead of   source host that has the file you want to copy. 

From the remote host you can use scp to pull the file from the source host , as long as  your user account on the source host has read access to it. 

But you need to run   "sudo scp"  on the remote host  to copy the file into a folder with root-only  permissons

Hooray !! 

Here are the steps:

-Copy a file  "script.sh"  from sourcehost:/var/prtg/scripts to  /var/prtg/scripts on a remote host-

#The /var/prtg/scripts  directory does not exist on the remote host so we have to create it.  And we have to use “sudo”  because  my account  afrancis  does not have write permissions for /var 

[afrancis@linuxhost/]$     ssh –t  afrancis@remotehost  “sudo mkdir –p  /var/prtg/scripts “

#Now  we need to use ssh to run scp on the remote host and copy the file  from the source host  to /var/prtg/scripts.

# In this example my user account has read access to  the file "script.sh" on the source  so it can copy it ok, but we need to use "sudo scp" on the remote host  because my user account does not have write perms for  /var/prtg/scripts on the remote host. 

[afrancis@linuxhost/]$ssh -t afrancis@remotehost  "sudo scp  afrancis@linuxhost:/var/prtg/scripts/script.sh /var/prtg/scripts/"

#Type in my password to ssh into the remote host

afrancis@remotehost’s password:

 #Type in again to run sudo on the remote host

[sudo] password for afrancis:

# Type my password a third time  to copy the file from the source

afrancis@linuxhost's password:

#  And it copied !

script.sh                                                                                                                                                              100% 1058     1.0KB/s   00:00

Connection to remotehost closed.

[afrancis@linuxhost/]$

#All Done !

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Notes :

1. The /var/prtg/scripts  directory does not exist on the remote host so we have to create it. 
2. We have to use “sudo”  because  my account  does not have write permissions for /var
3. The –t   override the  “no tty error”  when ssh’ing to the remote host
4. Mkdir –p  creates both   prtg and  scripts   folders at the same time.