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A folder was created on my computer and its name is [email protected]. That is a server I remotely connect. The folder has a lock symbol on it and it is write protected. What is it?

edit- The contents of the folder are some of the things I scp to the server of that name.

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    What is the path to the folder? Is that name copied literally or have you replaced an actual name and IP address? Apr 10, 2018 at 1:31
  • The folder got created in the home directory. I replaced it with xx.xx..
    – user239457
    Apr 10, 2018 at 1:33
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    Maybe at one point you might have accidentally typed in cp instead of scp and it created the folder. Check your history by running history | grep <ip address> and see if maybe it was an accident.
    – Terrance
    Apr 10, 2018 at 1:40
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    Probably created by running sudo at the first of the line. If you do an ls -al on that folder you should see the permissions and who is the owner of it.
    – Terrance
    Apr 10, 2018 at 1:46
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    user239457 You might consider asking @terrance to write his resolution as an answer to your question. This way you can accept the answer which will make it easy for others with a similar problem to find an acceptable solution. Apr 10, 2018 at 1:54

1 Answer 1

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This happens to me often. It's one of two things:

# Notice the missing ':' after host?
scp -r foo/ user@host

# in this case, with or without the ':', the `cp` is what's wrong.
cp -r foo/ user@host
cp -r foo/ user@host:

Usually, it's the first example that I mistype. I forgot the :, which scp treats as more or less a literal cp command.

For the second part of the mystery -- Since you also mentioned the folder is write protected, likely you included a sudo in front of one of these commands at one point. Again, I've done the same thing many times.

References:

  • See the discussion at this q/a for more background.

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