PuTTY PSCP error “Local to local copy not supported” when username contains a slash

Question

I am trying to move a file from my local Windows machine to a remote Linux server using PSCP. I am connected to the VPN so that I can access my remote Linux machine with my username and password.

My PSCP command for transfer is:

pscp C:\Users\username\Desktop\list.txt PEM\username@10.120.43.78:/home/local/PEM/username

This result in the error

Local to local copy not supported

---

I have tried this command just for a trial

pscp C:\Users\username\Desktop\list.txt username@10.120.43.78:/home/local/PEM/username

The above command resulted in asking me the password. However, when I type in the password, the access is denied. This is because my remote Linux machine username is PEM/username and not username. However if I use PEM/username the "Local to local copy not supported" error message is coming. Does it have something to do with the slash \ in the username PEM\username?

Answer 1

Yes, it's the backslash.

To workaround it, use an -l switch to specify the username.

pscp -l PEM\username C:\Users\username\Desktop\list.txt 10.120.43.78:/home/local/PEM/username

---

Background:

The PSCP looks for the first colon, slash or backslash in the target. Only if the first symbol is colon, it considers the target as remote, otherwise as local.

/*
 *  Find a colon in str and return a pointer to the colon.
 *  This is used to separate hostname from filename.
 */
static char *colon(char *str)
{
    /* We ignore a leading colon, since the hostname cannot be
       empty. We also ignore a colon as second character because
       of filenames like f:myfile.txt. */
    if (str[0] == '\0' || str[0] == ':' ||
        (str[0] != '[' && str[1] == ':'))
    return (NULL);
    str += host_strcspn(str, ":/\\");
    if (*str == ':')
    return (str);
    else
    return (NULL);
}

...

if (colon(argv[argc - 1]) != NULL)
    toremote(argc, argv);
else
    tolocal(argc, argv);

Answer 2

i think you are missing apostrophe after Windows file path:

pscp "C:\Users\username\Desktop\list.txt" PEM\username@10.120.43.78:/home/local/PEM/username