Question

155

How do I copy files that need root access with scp?

rated 0 times [ 155] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 451210 / 1 Year ago, wed, december 28, 2022, 7:54:39

I have an Ubuntu server to which I am connecting using SSH.

I need to upload files from my machine into /var/www/ on the server, the files in /var/www/ are owned by root.

Using PuTTY, after I log in, I have to type sudo su and my password first in order to be able to modify files in /var/www/.

But when I am copying files using WinSCP , I can't create create/modify files in /var/www/, because the user I'm connecting with does not have permissions on files in /var/www/ and I can't say sudo su as I do in case of an ssh session.

Do you know how i could deal with this ?

If I was working on my local machine, I would call gksudo nautilus but in this case I only have terminal access to the machine.

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

enincroscope

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 252

Total Questions: 124

Total Answers: 104

Location: Tajikistan

Member since Thu, Apr 14, 2022

2 Years ago

answered 1 Year ago cocal · Accepted Answer

You're right, there is no sudo when working with scp. A workaround is to use scp to upload files to a directory where your user has permissions to create files, then log in via ssh and use sudo to move/copy files to their final destination.

scp -r folder/ [email protected]:/some/folder/you/dont/need/sudo

ssh [email protected]

 $ sudo mv /some/folder /some/folder/requiring/perms 

# YOU MAY NEED TO CHANGE THE OWNER like:

# sudo chown -R user:user folder

Another solution would be to change permissions/ownership of the directories you uploading the files to, so your non-privileged user is able to write to those directories.

Generally, working in the root account should be an exception, not a rule - the way you phrasing your question makes me think maybe you're abusing it a bit, which in turn leads to problems with permissions - under normal circumstances you don't need super-admin privileges to access your own files.

Technically, you can configure Ubuntu to allow remote login directly as root, but this feature is disabled for a reason, so I would strongly advice you against doing that.