SCP (what you showed as an example) and SFTP (what you linked to a Wikipedia page for) are not the same thing. SCP is an older protocol and, while faster in some situations, is essentially abandoned. Newer versions of OpenSSH actually use SFTP even if you use the SCP command, so you might as well just use the SFTP command instead.
No, that is not correct. The SCP command was historically for a separate protocol, Secure Copy Protocol (and prior to 2022, it actually used that protocol). SFTP is Secure File Transfer Protocol. They are two separate things, and conflating them because of a compatibility layer is simply wrong.
It's like saying the classic reboot utility and systemd are the same thing just because modern Linux distros symlink the reboot command to systemctl. Or, to stretch a little further, like saying HTTP and HTTPS are the same thing just because most websites redirect one to the other.
There's no justification for spreading confusion and relying on a compatibility behavior for an obsolete command. That compatibility behavior is not present on pre-2022 distros, and may be removed again in the future once people are expected to have updated their scripts & whatnot. You're evangelizing SFTP, just use the SFTP command.
> classic reboot utility and systemd are the same thing just because modern Linux distros symlink the reboot command to systemctl
You are acknowledging my point - in this case they ARE the same thing. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck - it's a duck. This is like arguing symlinks are wrong and instead of `python` you must use `python3.12` even though they are ultimately identical. Read the man page for `scp` and read the man page for `sftp` and seriously tell me why I should use one over the other.
> That compatibility behavior is not present on pre-2022 distros
Who is using a pre-2022 distro reading this comment? And I have been using scp (with SSH, SFTP) for a lot longer than since 2022. Like over a decade.
Your comment reads like an HOA enforcer. Just raising fuss for no actual benefit.
> You are acknowledging my point - in this case they ARE the same thing. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck - it's a duck.
Ok, so two programs with different code that perform the same task are identical to you. There are never any merits or drawbacks on implementation according to you.
All the extra features that SFTP has but SCP doesn't don't exist, because "looks like a duck, quacks like a duck." SCP being faster but not allowing resuming interrupted transfers doesn't matter, because "looks like a duck, quacks like a duck."
If this is the level of thought you put into your tech, you don't seem worth arguing with, but you also don't seem like someone who should be "teaching" anything to anyone in your own comments.
> Who is using a pre-2022 distro reading this comment?
Plenty of enterprises. That's only two years ago. People still use systems far older than that.
This does include Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, which shipped OpenSSH 8.9. It would also include RHEL 9, which shipped OpenSSH 8.7, if Red Hat hadn't specifically patched it with the updated behavior.
> And I have been using scp (with SSH, SFTP) for a lot longer than since 2022. Like over a decade.
You probably weren't, you were probably using SCP. Optional SFTP support wasn't even added to the SCP command until 2020, committed in 2021, so "over a decade" is just factually impossible: https://github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/commit/197e29f1c...
This is why you need to know these things, because now you kind of look like an idiot for not even knowing the tools you use.
