How to download a file from server using SSH?

Both protocols rely on SSH for secure communication and are commonly used for file transfers.

How to download files with ssh?

To download a file from a server to your desktop using SSH on macOS (via iTerm 2), follow these steps:

Open iTerm2 Terminal, then run the SCP command from your local machine (Mac OS X):

scp [email protected]:foobar.txt /local/dir

Replacing the username, host, remote filename, and local directory as appropriate.

If you want to access EC2 (or other service that requires authenticating with a private key), use the -i option:

scp -i key_file.pem [email protected]:/remote/dir/foobar.txt /local/dir

For example, Using SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol)

SFTP allows more flexibility and is often used for interactive file transfers. Here's how you can use SFTP to download a file:

Open your terminal/command line on your local machine.

sftp username@server

Once connected, use the cd command to navigate to the directory containing the file on the remote server, and the ls command to list the files:

cd /path/to/remote/file
ls

Next, Download the file using the get command

For example:

get sample.txt

Example SFTP:

sftp [email protected]
cd /home/user/files
get sampletxt
exit

Make sure you have SSH access to the server and the necessary permissions to read the file you're downloading.

If the server uses a non-standard SSH port (not port 22), you can specify the port with the -P flag for scp or -oPort for sftp (e.g., scp -P 2222).