Scp exclude files

I don’t think so you can filter or exclude files when using scp command. However, there is a great workaround to exclude files and copy it securely using ssh. This page explains how to filter or excludes files when using scp to copy a directory recursively.

How to use rsync command to exclude files

The syntax is:
rsync av -e ssh --exclude='*.out' /path/to/source/ user@hostB:/path/to/dest/
Where,

1. -a : Recurse into directories i.e. copy all files and subdirectories. Also, turn on archive mode and all other options (-rlptgoD)
2. -v : Verbose output
3. -e ssh : Use ssh for remote shell so everything gets encrypted
4. --exclude='*.out' : exclude files matching PATTERN e.g. *.out or *.c and so on.

Example of rsync command

In this example copy all file recursively from ~/virt/ directory but exclude all *.new files:
$ rsync -av -e ssh --exclude='*.new' ~/virt/ root@centos7:/tmp
Sample outputs:

centos71.log  centos71.qcow2  centos71.qcow2.new  centos71.v2.qcow2.new meta-data  user-data

Copy everything in the current directory except .new file(s):
$ shopt -s extglob
$ scp !(*.new) root@centos7:/tmp/
Sample outputs:

centos71.log                                  100% 4262     1.3MB/s   00:00    
centos71.qcow2                                100%  836MB  32.7MB/s   00:25    
meta-data                                     100%   47    18.5KB/s   00:00    
user-data                                     100% 1543   569.7KB/s   00:00

See the following man pages for more info:
$ man rsync
$ man bash
$ man scp