scp + Avoid copy if the same file name located on remote machine?

Question

Is there any option to tell scp command - not copy file from current machine in case file exists on remote machine

For example

On my machine I have the file -

/etc/secret-pw.txt

On Remote machine I have also the file -

/etc/secret-pw.txt

So

scp /etc/secret-pw.txt $remote_machine:/etc

Will destroy the secret-pw.txt, and scp will not ask questions about: overwrite the target file

Is there any option to avoid copy if file exist on target machine by scp?

Update: I can't install rsync or any other program.

Answer 1

You should be using rsync instead of scp. It will give you what you need.

If you can't install rsync (as you mentioned in the comments) you need to run a script beforehand to check if file exists and run it with ssh.