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linscpSecure file transfer for Linux and Windows
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Integration

Linux desktop integration

Make sftp:// and other links open in linscp, add launchers for linscp or a site, and put the programs on your PATH.

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linscp follows the freedesktop.org conventions that GNOME, KDE, Xfce and most other Linux desktops use. Packages bring a menu entry with them. From Options › Preferences › Integration, in the Desktop group, you can add the rest: link handling, a desktop launcher and command-line access.

What the packages install

Section titled “What the packages install”

The .deb package and the Flatpak install the desktop entry io.github._99ecarvalho.linscp.desktop. It puts linscp in the Network section of your application menu and tells the desktop that linscp can open these link types:

  • sftp://, scp://, ssh://
  • ftp://, ftps://, ftpes://
  • dav://, davs://, s3://
  • the WinSCP-specific forms such as winscp-sftp:// and winscp-https://

Being able to open a link type is not the same as being its default. If another program already handles sftp://, links keep going there until you register linscp as below.

The AppImage installs nothing by itself. Use the buttons below to integrate it.

Section titled “Open links in linscp”
  1. Open Options › Preferences › Integration.
  2. Click Register to handle URL addresses and choose Register.
  3. Confirm.

linscp then:

  • writes ~/.local/share/applications/linscp.desktop for the link types listed above,
  • makes it the default for each of them in ~/.config/mimeapps.list, and leaves your other defaults alone,
  • refreshes the desktop database when update-desktop-database is installed.

To undo it, choose Unregister from the same button. linscp removes its entry and its lines in mimeapps.list.

You can also set a single default by hand:

Terminal window
xdg-mime default linscp.desktop x-scheme-handler/sftp

A link opened this way starts linscp with the /Unsafe switch. linscp then treats the link as untrusted: it drops the risky settings a link could carry and refuses switches such as /ini. See session URLs.

Desktop launchers

Section titled “Desktop launchers”
  • Create a desktop icon puts a linscp.desktop launcher on your desktop folder.
  • In the Site Manager, select a site and choose Tools › Desktop Icon to get a launcher that opens that site directly.

Launchers are marked executable. Some desktops still ask you to trust a new launcher before it runs; in GNOME, right-click it and choose Allow Launching.

Launchers follow how you run linscp: an AppImage launcher points at the .AppImage file, and a Flatpak one runs flatpak run. If you move the AppImage, create the launchers and the link registration again.

Run linscp from a terminal

Section titled “Run linscp from a terminal”

Add linscp to search path creates links to linscp and linscp-cli in ~/.local/bin. Most distributions put that folder on your PATH; open a new terminal afterwards. Then you can type:

Terminal window
linscp sftp://alice@example.com/
linscp-cli /script=/home/alice/upload.txt

The .deb package already installs both programs on the system path, so you need this mainly for the portable builds.

Not available on Linux

Section titled “Not available on Linux”

The Windows shell features have no Linux counterpart in linscp: the Explorer Send To entry, the taskbar jump list, the shell’s own file context menu and the drag-and-drop shell extension. See Windows shell integration. To open a session in a terminal, see PuTTY and terminals.