# 🚀 SCP for GitHub Actions [GitHub Action](https://github.com/features/actions) for copying files and artifacts via SSH. [![Actions Status](https://github.com/appleboy/scp-action/workflows/scp%20files/badge.svg)](https://github.com/appleboy/scp-action/actions) **Important**: Only supports **Linux** [docker](https://www.docker.com/) containers. ## Usage Copy files and artifacts via SSH: ```yaml name: scp files on: [push] jobs: build: name: Build runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 - name: copy file via ssh password uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: host: ${{ secrets.HOST }} username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }} password: ${{ secrets.PASSWORD }} port: ${{ secrets.PORT }} source: "tests/a.txt,tests/b.txt" target: your_server_target_folder_path ``` ## Input variables See the [action.yml](./action.yml) file for more detail information. | Variable | Description | Default Value | | ------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- | | host | Remote host address for SCP (e.g., example.com or 192.168.1.1). | - | | port | Remote SSH port for SCP. Default: 22. | 22 | | username | Username for SSH authentication. | - | | password | Password for SSH authentication (not recommended; use SSH keys if possible). | - | | protocol | IP protocol to use. Valid values: 'tcp', 'tcp4', or 'tcp6'. Default: tcp. | tcp | | timeout | Timeout for establishing SSH connection to the remote host. Default: 30s. | 30s | | command_timeout | Timeout for the SCP command execution. Default: 10m. | 10m | | key | Content of the SSH private key (e.g., the raw content of ~/.ssh/id_rsa). | - | | key_path | Path to the SSH private key file. | - | | passphrase | Passphrase for the SSH private key, if required. | - | | fingerprint | SHA256 fingerprint of the host's public key. If not set, host key verification is skipped (not recommended for production). | - | | use_insecure_cipher | Enable additional, less secure ciphers for compatibility. Not recommended unless required. | - | | target | Target directory path on the remote server. Must be a directory. | - | | source | List of files or directories to transfer (local paths). | - | | rm | Remove the target directory on the server before uploading new data. | - | | debug | Enable debug messages for troubleshooting. | - | | strip_components | Remove the specified number of leading path elements when extracting files. | - | | overwrite | Use the --overwrite flag with tar to overwrite existing files. | - | | tar_dereference | Use the --dereference flag with tar to follow symlinks. | - | | tar_tmp_path | Temporary path for the tar file on the destination host. | - | | tar_exec | Path to the tar executable on the destination host. Default: tar. | tar | | curl_insecure | When true, uses the --insecure option with curl for insecure downloads. | false | | capture_stdout | When true, captures and returns standard output from the commands as action output. | false | | version | The version of drone-scp to use. | - | SSH Proxy Setting: | Variable | Description | Default Value | | ------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- | | proxy_host | Remote host address for SSH proxy. | - | | proxy_port | SSH proxy port. Default: 22. | 22 | | proxy_username | Username for SSH proxy authentication. | - | | proxy_password | Password for SSH proxy authentication. | - | | proxy_passphrase | Passphrase for the SSH proxy private key, if required. | - | | proxy_timeout | Timeout for establishing SSH connection to the proxy host. Default: 30s. | 30s | | proxy_key | Content of the SSH proxy private key (e.g., the raw content of ~/.ssh/id_rsa). | - | | proxy_key_path | Path to the SSH proxy private key file. | - | | proxy_fingerprint | SHA256 fingerprint of the proxy host's public key. If not set, host key verification is skipped (not recommended for production). | - | | proxy_use_insecure_cipher | Enable additional, less secure ciphers for the proxy connection. Not recommended unless required. | - | ## Setting up a SSH Key Make sure to follow the steps below when creating and using SSH keys. The best practice is to create the SSH keys on the local machine, not the remote machine. Log in with the username specified in GitHub Secrets and generate an RSA key pair: ```bash # rsa ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com" # ed25519 ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -a 200 -C "your_email@example.com" ``` Add newly generated key into Authorized keys. Read more about authorized keys [here](https://www.ssh.com/ssh/authorized_keys/). ```bash # rsa cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh b@B 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys' # d25519 cat .ssh/id_ed25519.pub | ssh b@B 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys' ``` Copy Private Key content and paste in Github Secrets. ```bash # rsa clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa # ed25519 clip < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 ``` See the detail information about [SSH login without password](http://www.linuxproblem.org/art_9.html). **A note** from one of our readers: Depending on your version of SSH you might also have to do the following changes: - Put the public key in `.ssh/authorized_keys2` - Change the permissions of `.ssh` to 700 - Change the permissions of `.ssh/authorized_keys2` to 640 ### If you are using OpenSSH If you are currently using OpenSSH and are getting the following error: ```bash ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none publickey] ``` Make sure that your key algorithm of choice is supported. On Ubuntu 20.04 or later you must explicitly allow the use of the ssh-rsa algorithm. Add the following line to your OpenSSH daemon file (which is either `/etc/ssh/sshd_config` or a drop-in file under `/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/`): ```bash CASignatureAlgorithms +ssh-rsa ``` Alternatively, `ed25519` keys are accepted by default in OpenSSH. You could use this instead of rsa if needed: ```bash ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -a 200 -C "your_email@example.com" ``` ## Example Copy file via a SSH password: ```yaml - name: copy file via ssh password uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: host: example.com username: foo password: bar port: 22 source: "tests/a.txt,tests/b.txt" target: your_server_target_folder_path ``` Using the environment variables ```yaml - name: copy file via ssh password uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: host: ${{ env.HOST }} username: ${{ env.USERNAME }} password: ${{ secrets.PASSWORD }} port: ${{ env.PORT }} source: "tests/a.txt,tests/b.txt" target: ${{ env.TARGET_PATH }} ``` Copy file via a SSH key: ```yaml - name: copy file via ssh key uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: host: ${{ secrets.HOST }} username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }} port: ${{ secrets.PORT }} key: ${{ secrets.KEY }} source: "tests/a.txt,tests/b.txt" target: your_server_target_folder_path ``` Example configuration for ignore list: ```yaml - name: copy file via ssh key uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: host: ${{ secrets.HOST }} username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }} port: ${{ secrets.PORT }} key: ${{ secrets.KEY }} source: "tests/*.txt,!tests/a.txt" target: your_server_target_folder_path ``` Example configuration for multiple servers: ```diff uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: - host: "example.com" + host: "foo.com,bar.com" username: foo password: bar port: 22 source: "tests/a.txt,tests/b.txt" target: your_server_target_folder_path ``` Example configuration for exclude custom files: ```yaml uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: host: "example.com" username: foo password: bar port: 22 - source: "tests/*.txt" + source: "tests/*.txt,!tests/a.txt,!tests/b.txt" target: your_server_target_folder_path ``` Upload artifact files to remote server: ```yaml deploy: name: deploy artifact runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - name: checkout uses: actions/checkout@v4 - run: echo hello > world.txt - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4 with: name: my-artifact path: world.txt - uses: actions/download-artifact@v4 with: name: my-artifact path: distfiles - name: copy file to server uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: host: ${{ secrets.HOST }} username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }} key: ${{ secrets.KEY }} port: ${{ secrets.PORT }} source: distfiles/* target: your_server_target_folder_path ``` Remove the specified number of leading path elements: ```yaml - name: remove the specified number of leading path elements uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: host: ${{ secrets.HOST }} username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }} key: ${{ secrets.KEY }} port: ${{ secrets.PORT }} source: "tests/a.txt,tests/b.txt" target: your_server_target_folder_path strip_components: 1 ``` Old target structure: ```sh foobar └── tests ├── a.txt └── b.txt ``` New target structure: ```sh foobar ├── a.txt └── b.txt ``` Only copy files that are newer than the corresponding destination files: ```yaml changes: name: test changed-files runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - name: checkout uses: actions/checkout@v4 - name: Get changed files id: changed-files uses: tj-actions/changed-files@v35 with: since_last_remote_commit: true separator: "," - name: copy file to server uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: host: ${{ secrets.HOST }} username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }} key: ${{ secrets.KEY }} port: ${{ secrets.PORT }} source: ${{ steps.changed-files.outputs.all_changed_files }} target: your_server_target_folder_path ``` Protecting a Private Key. The purpose of the passphrase is usually to encrypt the private key. This makes the key file by itself useless to an attacker. It is not uncommon for files to leak from backups or decommissioned hardware, and hackers commonly exfiltrate files from compromised systems. ```diff - name: ssh key with passphrase uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: host: ${{ secrets.HOST }} username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }} key: ${{ secrets.SSH2 }} + passphrase: ${{ secrets.PASSPHRASE }} port: ${{ secrets.PORT }} source: "tests/a.txt,tests/b.txt" target: your_server_target_folder_path ``` When copying files from a Linux runner to a Windows server, you should: 1. Download git for Windows 2. Change the default OpenSSH shell to git bach with the following powershell command. 3. Set `tar_dereference` and `rm` variable to `true` in the YAML file 4. Avoid putting the `port` value through a variable 5. Convert the target path to a Unix path: `/c/path/to/target/` Change the default OpenSSH shell to git bach with the following powershell command. ```powershell New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\OpenSSH" -Name DefaultShell -Value "$env:Programfiles\Git\bin\bash.exe" -PropertyType String -Force ``` Convert the target path to a Unix path: `/c/path/to/target/` ```diff - name: Copy to Windows uses: appleboy/scp-action@v0.1.7 with: host: ${{ secrets.HOST }} username: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }} key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }} port: 22 source: 'your_source_path' - target: 'C:\path\to\target' + target: '/c/path/to/target/' + tar_dereference: true + rm: true ```