[one-liner]: Using scp to Copy Files that Contain Spaces

Background

Have you ever needed to copy either a single file or a directory that contains spaces using scp? Here are a couple of techniques for how to do this.

Solution

Here are several ways to accomplish the same thing. Copying a entire directory with spaces and copying a file with spaces using scp.

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# Ways to copy entire directories
% scp -r user@myserver.com:'"/path/with/a/Space In It"' .
% scp -r user@myserver.com:"'/path/with/a/Space In It'" .
% scp -r user@myserver.com:'/path/with/a/Space\ In\ It' .
% scp -r user@myserver.com:"/path/with/a/Space\ In\ It" .
% scp -r user@myserver.com:/path/with/a/Space\\\ In\\\ It .
% scp -r user@myserver.com:"\"/path/with/a/Space In It\"" .
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# Ways to copy a single file
% scp -r user@myserver.com:'"/path/with/a/Space In It/file with spaces.txt"' .
% scp -r user@myserver.com:"'/path/with/a/Space In It/file with spaces.txt'" .
% scp -r user@myserver.com:'/path/with/a/Space\ In\ It/file with spaces.txt' .
% scp -r user@myserver.com:"/path/with/a/Space\ In\ It/file\ with\ spaces.txt" .
% scp -r user@myserver.com:/path/with/a/Space\\\ In\\\ It/file\\\ with\\\ spaces.txt .
% scp user@myserver.com:"\"/path/with/a/Space In It/file with spaces.txt\"" .
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