How to Download an Entire Directory Using SFTP?

When working with SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol), you might need to download an entire directory from a remote server to your local machine. Here’s how you can do it.

1. Connecting to the SFTP Server

First, you need to connect to the SFTP server. You can do this from the command line using the following command:

Replace user with your username and remote_server with the address of the server you want to connect to. You will be prompted to enter your password for authentication.

2. Navigate to the Remote Directory

Once connected, navigate to the directory you want to download using the cd command:

3. Download the Entire Directory

Unfortunately, the traditional SFTP client does not have a native command to download entire directories with a single command. However, you can use the get command with the -r option to recursively download a directory:

This will download the specified directory and all its contents to your local machine.

4. Exit the SFTP Server

After the transfer is complete, you can exit the SFTP session using:

Alternative: Using scp to Transfer Directories

If you prefer a simpler and faster solution to transfer entire directories, you can use scp (Secure Copy) from the command line, which also uses SSH:

This command will copy the entire remote directory to your local machine, preserving the directory structure.