1SFTP(1) BSD General Commands Manual SFTP(1)
2
4 sftp — secure file transfer program
5
7 sftp [-46aCfpqrv] [-B buffer_size] [-b batchfile] [-c cipher]
8 [-D sftp_server_path] [-F ssh_config] [-i identity_file]
9 [-J destination] [-l limit] [-o ssh_option] [-P port]
10 [-R num_requests] [-S program] [-s subsystem | sftp_server]
11 destination
12
14 sftp is a file transfer program, similar to ftp(1), which performs all
15 operations over an encrypted ssh(1) transport. It may also use many fea‐
16 tures of ssh, such as public key authentication and compression.
17 The destination may be specified either as [user@]host[:path] or as a URI
19 in the form sftp://[user@]host[:port][/path].
20 If the destination includes a path and it is not a directory, sftp will
22 retrieve files automatically if a non-interactive authentication method
23 is used; otherwise it will do so after successful interactive authentica‐
24 tion.
25 If no path is specified, or if the path is a directory, sftp will log in
27 to the specified host and enter interactive command mode, changing to the
28 remote directory if one was specified. An optional trailing slash can be
29 used to force the path to be interpreted as a directory.
30 Since the destination formats use colon characters to delimit host names
32 from path names or port numbers, IPv6 addresses must be enclosed in
33 square brackets to avoid ambiguity.
34 The options are as follows:
36 -4 Forces sftp to use IPv4 addresses only.
38 -6 Forces sftp to use IPv6 addresses only.
40 -a Attempt to continue interrupted transfers rather than overwriting
42 existing partial or complete copies of files. If the partial
43 contents differ from those being transferred, then the resultant
44 file is likely to be corrupt.
45 -B buffer_size
47 Specify the size of the buffer that sftp uses when transferring
48 files. Larger buffers require fewer round trips at the cost of
49 higher memory consumption. The default is 32768 bytes.
50 -b batchfile
52 Batch mode reads a series of commands from an input batchfile
53 instead of stdin. Since it lacks user interaction it should be
54 used in conjunction with non-interactive authentication to obvi‐
55 ate the need to enter a password at connection time (see sshd(8)
56 and ssh-keygen(1) for details).
57 A batchfile of ‘-’ may be used to indicate standard input. sftp
59 will abort if any of the following commands fail: get, put,
60 reget, reput, rename, ln, rm, mkdir, chdir, ls, lchdir, chmod,
61 chown, chgrp, lpwd, df, symlink, and lmkdir.
62 Termination on error can be suppressed on a command by command
64 basis by prefixing the command with a ‘-’ character (for example,
65 -rm /tmp/blah*). Echo of the command may be suppressed by pre‐
66 fixing the command with a ‘@’ character. These two prefixes may
67 be combined in any order, for example -@ls /bsd.
68 -C Enables compression (via ssh's -C flag).
70 -c cipher
72 Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfers.
73 This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
74 -D sftp_server_path
76 Connect directly to a local sftp server (rather than via ssh(1)).
77 This option may be useful in debugging the client and server.
78 -F ssh_config
80 Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for ssh(1).
81 This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
82 -f Requests that files be flushed to disk immediately after trans‐
84 fer. When uploading files, this feature is only enabled if the
85 server implements the "fsync@openssh.com" extension.
86 -i identity_file
88 Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for public
89 key authentication is read. This option is directly passed to
90 ssh(1).
91 -J destination
93 Connect to the target host by first making an sftp connection to
94 the jump host described by destination and then establishing a
95 TCP forwarding to the ultimate destination from there. Multiple
96 jump hops may be specified separated by comma characters. This
97 is a shortcut to specify a ProxyJump configuration directive.
98 This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
99 -l limit
101 Limits the used bandwidth, specified in Kbit/s.
102 -o ssh_option
104 Can be used to pass options to ssh in the format used in
105 ssh_config(5). This is useful for specifying options for which
106 there is no separate sftp command-line flag. For example, to
107 specify an alternate port use: sftp -oPort=24. For full details
108 of the options listed below, and their possible values, see
109 ssh_config(5).
110 AddressFamily
112 BatchMode
113 BindAddress
114 BindInterface
115 CanonicalDomains
116 CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
117 CanonicalizeHostname
118 CanonicalizeMaxDots
119 CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
120 CASignatureAlgorithms
121 CertificateFile
122 ChallengeResponseAuthentication
123 CheckHostIP
124 Ciphers
125 Compression
126 ConnectionAttempts
127 ConnectTimeout
128 ControlMaster
129 ControlPath
130 ControlPersist
131 GlobalKnownHostsFile
132 GSSAPIAuthentication
133 GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
134 HashKnownHosts
135 Host
136 HostbasedAuthentication
137 HostbasedKeyTypes
138 HostKeyAlgorithms
139 HostKeyAlias
140 HostName
141 IdentitiesOnly
142 IdentityAgent
143 IdentityFile
144 IPQoS
145 KbdInteractiveAuthentication
146 KbdInteractiveDevices
147 KexAlgorithms
148 LogLevel
149 MACs
150 NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
151 NumberOfPasswordPrompts
152 PasswordAuthentication
153 PKCS11Provider
154 Port
155 PreferredAuthentications
156 ProxyCommand
157 ProxyJump
158 PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes
159 PubkeyAuthentication
160 RekeyLimit
161 SendEnv
162 ServerAliveInterval
163 ServerAliveCountMax
164 SetEnv
165 StrictHostKeyChecking
166 TCPKeepAlive
167 UpdateHostKeys
168 User
169 UserKnownHostsFile
170 VerifyHostKeyDNS
171 -P port
173 Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host.
174 -p Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from the
176 original files transferred.
177 -q Quiet mode: disables the progress meter as well as warning and
179 diagnostic messages from ssh(1).
180 -R num_requests
182 Specify how many requests may be outstanding at any one time.
183 Increasing this may slightly improve file transfer speed but will
184 increase memory usage. The default is 64 outstanding requests.
185 -r Recursively copy entire directories when uploading and download‐
187 ing. Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links encountered
188 in the tree traversal.
189 -S program
191 Name of the program to use for the encrypted connection. The
192 program must understand ssh(1) options.
193 -s subsystem | sftp_server
195 Specifies the SSH2 subsystem or the path for an sftp server on
196 the remote host. A path is useful when the remote sshd(8) does
197 not have an sftp subsystem configured.
198 -v Raise logging level. This option is also passed to ssh.
200
202 Once in interactive mode, sftp understands a set of commands similar to
203 those of ftp(1). Commands are case insensitive. Pathnames that contain
204 spaces must be enclosed in quotes. Any special characters contained
205 within pathnames that are recognized by glob(3) must be escaped with
206 backslashes (‘\’).
207 bye Quit sftp.
209 cd [path]
211 Change remote directory to path. If path is not specified, then
212 change directory to the one the session started in.
213 chgrp [-h] grp path
215 Change group of file path to grp. If the -h flag is specified,
216 then symlinks will not be followed. path may contain glob(7)
217 characters and may match multiple files. grp must be a numeric
218 GID.
219 chmod [-h] mode path
221 Change permissions of file path to mode. If the -h flag is spec‐
222 ified, then symlinks will not be followed. path may contain
223 glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
224 chown [-h] own path
226 Change owner of file path to own. If the -h flag is specified,
227 then symlinks will not be followed. path may contain glob(7)
228 characters and may match multiple files. own must be a numeric
229 UID.
230 df [-hi] [path]
232 Display usage information for the filesystem holding the current
233 directory (or path if specified). If the -h flag is specified,
234 the capacity information will be displayed using "human-readable"
235 suffixes. The -i flag requests display of inode information in
236 addition to capacity information. This command is only supported
237 on servers that implement the “statvfs@openssh.com” extension.
238 exit Quit sftp.
240 get [-afPpr] remote-path [local-path]
242 Retrieve the remote-path and store it on the local machine. If
243 the local path name is not specified, it is given the same name
244 it has on the remote machine. remote-path may contain glob(7)
245 characters and may match multiple files. If it does and
246 local-path is specified, then local-path must specify a direc‐
247 tory.
248 If the -a flag is specified, then attempt to resume partial
250 transfers of existing files. Note that resumption assumes that
251 any partial copy of the local file matches the remote copy. If
252 the remote file contents differ from the partial local copy then
253 the resultant file is likely to be corrupt.
254 If the -f flag is specified, then fsync(2) will be called after
256 the file transfer has completed to flush the file to disk.
257 If either the -P or -p flag is specified, then full file permis‐
259 sions and access times are copied too.
260 If the -r flag is specified then directories will be copied
262 recursively. Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links when
263 performing recursive transfers.
264 help Display help text.
266 lcd [path]
268 Change local directory to path. If path is not specified, then
269 change directory to the local user's home directory.
270 lls [ls-options [path]]
272 Display local directory listing of either path or current direc‐
273 tory if path is not specified. ls-options may contain any flags
274 supported by the local system's ls(1) command. path may contain
275 glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
276 lmkdir path
278 Create local directory specified by path.
279 ln [-s] oldpath newpath
281 Create a link from oldpath to newpath. If the -s flag is speci‐
282 fied the created link is a symbolic link, otherwise it is a hard
283 link.
284 lpwd Print local working directory.
286 ls [-1afhlnrSt] [path]
288 Display a remote directory listing of either path or the current
289 directory if path is not specified. path may contain glob(7)
290 characters and may match multiple files.
291 The following flags are recognized and alter the behaviour of ls
293 accordingly:
294 -1 Produce single columnar output.
296 -a List files beginning with a dot (‘.’).
298 -f Do not sort the listing. The default sort order is lexi‐
300 cographical.
301 -h When used with a long format option, use unit suffixes:
303 Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte, Petabyte,
304 and Exabyte in order to reduce the number of digits to
305 four or fewer using powers of 2 for sizes (K=1024,
306 M=1048576, etc.).
307 -l Display additional details including permissions and own‐
309 ership information.
310 -n Produce a long listing with user and group information
312 presented numerically.
313 -r Reverse the sort order of the listing.
315 -S Sort the listing by file size.
317 -t Sort the listing by last modification time.
319 lumask umask
321 Set local umask to umask.
322 mkdir path
324 Create remote directory specified by path.
325 progress
327 Toggle display of progress meter.
328 put [-afPpr] local-path [remote-path]
330 Upload local-path and store it on the remote machine. If the
331 remote path name is not specified, it is given the same name it
332 has on the local machine. local-path may contain glob(7) charac‐
333 ters and may match multiple files. If it does and remote-path is
334 specified, then remote-path must specify a directory.
335 If the -a flag is specified, then attempt to resume partial
337 transfers of existing files. Note that resumption assumes that
338 any partial copy of the remote file matches the local copy. If
339 the local file contents differ from the remote local copy then
340 the resultant file is likely to be corrupt.
341 If the -f flag is specified, then a request will be sent to the
343 server to call fsync(2) after the file has been transferred.
344 Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
345 "fsync@openssh.com" extension.
346 If either the -P or -p flag is specified, then full file permis‐
348 sions and access times are copied too.
349 If the -r flag is specified then directories will be copied
351 recursively. Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links when
352 performing recursive transfers.
353 pwd Display remote working directory.
355 quit Quit sftp.
357 reget [-Ppr] remote-path [local-path]
359 Resume download of remote-path. Equivalent to get with the -a
360 flag set.
361 reput [-Ppr] [local-path] remote-path
363 Resume upload of [local-path]. Equivalent to put with the -a
364 flag set.
365 rename oldpath newpath
367 Rename remote file from oldpath to newpath.
368 rm path
370 Delete remote file specified by path.
371 rmdir path
373 Remove remote directory specified by path.
374 symlink oldpath newpath
376 Create a symbolic link from oldpath to newpath.
377 version
379 Display the sftp protocol version.
380 !command
382 Execute command in local shell.
383 ! Escape to local shell.
385 ? Synonym for help.
387
389 ftp(1), ls(1), scp(1), ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-keygen(1), ssh_config(5),
390 glob(7), sftp-server(8), sshd(8)
391 T. Ylonen and S. Lehtinen, SSH File Transfer Protocol, draft-ietf-secsh-
393 filexfer-00.txt, January 2001, work in progress material.
394BSD June 21, 2019 BSD