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I have a group of servers all properly configured with SSH agent forwarding. It is a typical bastion server style configuration where the only machine you can connect to from the outside is server A. From server A you can use agent forwarding to connect to servers B, C, D, etc. It is all working perfectly.

Sometimes I want to copy a file from my local machine to server B. In order to do this I have to first scp the file to server A. Then ssh to server A and scp the file to server B. Then I delete the file from server A.

Is there a way to copy the file directly from my computer to server B via server A in just one command executed on my local machine?

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If your sshd is configured to allow TCP forwarding then you can set up a tunnel from your computer to B via A and then use it to copy things through. Create the tunnel

ssh -f -L 2050:B:22 A -N
  • -f background the ssh command so you get your terminal back to use.
  • -L 2050:B22 bind localhost port 2050 to host B port 22
  • -N do not execute a remote command.

then to copy from your computer to B

scp -P 2050 filetocopy localhost:/destination/path

EDIT: If you use

ssh -L 2050:B:22 A -N &

Then you will be told the PID of the ssh command when it backgrounds.

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how do I close the tunnel afterwards? – Apreche Feb 2 at 20:03
You would have to use ps to identify the PID of the ssh command that is doing the tunnelling. Alternatively see my edit. – Iain♦ Feb 2 at 20:07
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