1SFTP(1)                   BSD General Commands Manual                  SFTP(1)
2

NAME

4     sftp — OpenSSH secure file transfer
5

SYNOPSIS

7     sftp [-46AaCfNpqrv] [-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

DESCRIPTION

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
18     The destination may be specified either as [user@]host[:path] or as a URI
19     in the form sftp://[user@]host[:port][/path].
20
21     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
26     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
31     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
35     The options are as follows:
36
37     -4      Forces sftp to use IPv4 addresses only.
38
39     -6      Forces sftp to use IPv6 addresses only.
40
41     -A      Allows forwarding of ssh-agent(1) to the remote system.  The de‐
42             fault is not to forward an authentication agent.
43
44     -a      Attempt to continue interrupted transfers rather than overwriting
45             existing partial or complete copies of files.  If the partial
46             contents differ from those being transferred, then the resultant
47             file is likely to be corrupt.
48
49     -B buffer_size
50             Specify the size of the buffer that sftp uses when transferring
51             files.  Larger buffers require fewer round trips at the cost of
52             higher memory consumption.  The default is 32768 bytes.
53
54     -b batchfile
55             Batch mode reads a series of commands from an input batchfile in‐
56             stead of stdin.  Since it lacks user interaction it should be
57             used in conjunction with non-interactive authentication to obvi‐
58             ate the need to enter a password at connection time (see sshd(8)
59             and ssh-keygen(1) for details).
60
61             A batchfile of ‘-’ may be used to indicate standard input.  sftp
62             will abort if any of the following commands fail: get, put,
63             reget, reput, rename, ln, rm, mkdir, chdir, ls, lchdir, chmod,
64             chown, chgrp, lpwd, df, symlink, and lmkdir.
65
66             Termination on error can be suppressed on a command by command
67             basis by prefixing the command with a ‘-’ character (for example,
68             -rm /tmp/blah*).  Echo of the command may be suppressed by pre‐
69             fixing the command with a ‘@’ character.  These two prefixes may
70             be combined in any order, for example -@ls /bsd.
71
72     -C      Enables compression (via ssh's -C flag).
73
74     -c cipher
75             Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfers.
76             This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
77
78     -D sftp_server_path
79             Connect directly to a local sftp server (rather than via ssh(1)).
80             This option may be useful in debugging the client and server.
81
82     -F ssh_config
83             Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for ssh(1).
84             This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
85
86     -f      Requests that files be flushed to disk immediately after trans‐
87             fer.  When uploading files, this feature is only enabled if the
88             server implements the "fsync@openssh.com" extension.
89
90     -i identity_file
91             Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for public
92             key authentication is read.  This option is directly passed to
93             ssh(1).
94
95     -J destination
96             Connect to the target host by first making an sftp connection to
97             the jump host described by destination and then establishing a
98             TCP forwarding to the ultimate destination from there.  Multiple
99             jump hops may be specified separated by comma characters.  This
100             is a shortcut to specify a ProxyJump configuration directive.
101             This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
102
103     -l limit
104             Limits the used bandwidth, specified in Kbit/s.
105
106     -N      Disables quiet mode, e.g. to override the implicit quiet mode set
107             by the -b flag.
108
109     -o ssh_option
110             Can be used to pass options to ssh in the format used in
111             ssh_config(5).  This is useful for specifying options for which
112             there is no separate sftp command-line flag.  For example, to
113             specify an alternate port use: sftp -oPort=24.  For full details
114             of the options listed below, and their possible values, see
115             ssh_config(5).
116
117                   AddressFamily
118                   BatchMode
119                   BindAddress
120                   BindInterface
121                   CanonicalDomains
122                   CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
123                   CanonicalizeHostname
124                   CanonicalizeMaxDots
125                   CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
126                   CASignatureAlgorithms
127                   CertificateFile
128                   ChallengeResponseAuthentication
129                   CheckHostIP
130                   Ciphers
131                   Compression
132                   ConnectionAttempts
133                   ConnectTimeout
134                   ControlMaster
135                   ControlPath
136                   ControlPersist
137                   GlobalKnownHostsFile
138                   GSSAPIAuthentication
139                   GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
140                   HashKnownHosts
141                   Host
142                   HostbasedAcceptedAlgorithms
143                   HostbasedAuthentication
144                   HostKeyAlgorithms
145                   HostKeyAlias
146                   Hostname
147                   IdentitiesOnly
148                   IdentityAgent
149                   IdentityFile
150                   IPQoS
151                   KbdInteractiveAuthentication
152                   KbdInteractiveDevices
153                   KexAlgorithms
154                   KnownHostsCommand
155                   LogLevel
156                   MACs
157                   NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
158                   NumberOfPasswordPrompts
159                   PasswordAuthentication
160                   PKCS11Provider
161                   Port
162                   PreferredAuthentications
163                   ProxyCommand
164                   ProxyJump
165                   PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms
166                   PubkeyAuthentication
167                   RekeyLimit
168                   SendEnv
169                   ServerAliveInterval
170                   ServerAliveCountMax
171                   SetEnv
172                   StrictHostKeyChecking
173                   TCPKeepAlive
174                   UpdateHostKeys
175                   User
176                   UserKnownHostsFile
177                   VerifyHostKeyDNS
178
179     -P port
180             Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host.
181
182     -p      Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from the
183             original files transferred.
184
185     -q      Quiet mode: disables the progress meter as well as warning and
186             diagnostic messages from ssh(1).
187
188     -R num_requests
189             Specify how many requests may be outstanding at any one time.
190             Increasing this may slightly improve file transfer speed but will
191             increase memory usage.  The default is 256 outstanding requests
192             providing for 8MB of outstanding data with a 32KB buffer.
193
194     -r      Recursively copy entire directories when uploading and download‐
195             ing.  Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links encountered
196             in the tree traversal.
197
198     -S program
199             Name of the program to use for the encrypted connection.  The
200             program must understand ssh(1) options.
201
202     -s subsystem | sftp_server
203             Specifies the SSH2 subsystem or the path for an sftp server on
204             the remote host.  A path is useful when the remote sshd(8) does
205             not have an sftp subsystem configured.
206
207     -v      Raise logging level.  This option is also passed to ssh.
208

INTERACTIVE COMMANDS

210     Once in interactive mode, sftp understands a set of commands similar to
211     those of ftp(1).  Commands are case insensitive.  Pathnames that contain
212     spaces must be enclosed in quotes.  Any special characters contained
213     within pathnames that are recognized by glob(3) must be escaped with
214     backslashes (‘\’).
215
216     bye     Quit sftp.
217
218     cd [path]
219             Change remote directory to path.  If path is not specified, then
220             change directory to the one the session started in.
221
222     chgrp [-h] grp path
223             Change group of file path to grp.  path may contain glob(7) char‐
224             acters and may match multiple files.  grp must be a numeric GID.
225
226             If the -h flag is specified, then symlinks will not be followed.
227             Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
228             "lsetstat@openssh.com" extension.
229
230     chmod [-h] mode path
231             Change permissions of file path to mode.  path may contain
232             glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
233
234             If the -h flag is specified, then symlinks will not be followed.
235             Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
236             "lsetstat@openssh.com" extension.
237
238     chown [-h] own path
239             Change owner of file path to own.  path may contain glob(7) char‐
240             acters and may match multiple files.  own must be a numeric UID.
241
242             If the -h flag is specified, then symlinks will not be followed.
243             Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
244             "lsetstat@openssh.com" extension.
245
246     df [-hi] [path]
247             Display usage information for the filesystem holding the current
248             directory (or path if specified).  If the -h flag is specified,
249             the capacity information will be displayed using "human-readable"
250             suffixes.  The -i flag requests display of inode information in
251             addition to capacity information.  This command is only supported
252             on servers that implement the “statvfs@openssh.com” extension.
253
254     exit    Quit sftp.
255
256     get [-afpR] remote-path [local-path]
257             Retrieve the remote-path and store it on the local machine.  If
258             the local path name is not specified, it is given the same name
259             it has on the remote machine.  remote-path may contain glob(7)
260             characters and may match multiple files.  If it does and
261             local-path is specified, then local-path must specify a direc‐
262             tory.
263
264             If the -a flag is specified, then attempt to resume partial
265             transfers of existing files.  Note that resumption assumes that
266             any partial copy of the local file matches the remote copy.  If
267             the remote file contents differ from the partial local copy then
268             the resultant file is likely to be corrupt.
269
270             If the -f flag is specified, then fsync(2) will be called after
271             the file transfer has completed to flush the file to disk.
272
273             If the -p flag is specified, then full file permissions and ac‐
274             cess times are copied too.
275
276             If the -R flag is specified then directories will be copied re‐
277             cursively.  Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links when
278             performing recursive transfers.
279
280     help    Display help text.
281
282     lcd [path]
283             Change local directory to path.  If path is not specified, then
284             change directory to the local user's home directory.
285
286     lls [ls-options [path]]
287             Display local directory listing of either path or current direc‐
288             tory if path is not specified.  ls-options may contain any flags
289             supported by the local system's ls(1) command.  path may contain
290             glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
291
292     lmkdir path
293             Create local directory specified by path.
294
295     ln [-s] oldpath newpath
296             Create a link from oldpath to newpath.  If the -s flag is speci‐
297             fied the created link is a symbolic link, otherwise it is a hard
298             link.
299
300     lpwd    Print local working directory.
301
302     ls [-1afhlnrSt] [path]
303             Display a remote directory listing of either path or the current
304             directory if path is not specified.  path may contain glob(7)
305             characters and may match multiple files.
306
307             The following flags are recognized and alter the behaviour of ls
308             accordingly:
309
310             -1      Produce single columnar output.
311
312             -a      List files beginning with a dot (‘.’).
313
314             -f      Do not sort the listing.  The default sort order is lexi‐
315                     cographical.
316
317             -h      When used with a long format option, use unit suffixes:
318                     Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte, Petabyte,
319                     and Exabyte in order to reduce the number of digits to
320                     four or fewer using powers of 2 for sizes (K=1024,
321                     M=1048576, etc.).
322
323             -l      Display additional details including permissions and own‐
324                     ership information.
325
326             -n      Produce a long listing with user and group information
327                     presented numerically.
328
329             -r      Reverse the sort order of the listing.
330
331             -S      Sort the listing by file size.
332
333             -t      Sort the listing by last modification time.
334
335     lumask umask
336             Set local umask to umask.
337
338     mkdir path
339             Create remote directory specified by path.
340
341     progress
342             Toggle display of progress meter.
343
344     put [-afpR] local-path [remote-path]
345             Upload local-path and store it on the remote machine.  If the re‐
346             mote path name is not specified, it is given the same name it has
347             on the local machine.  local-path may contain glob(7) characters
348             and may match multiple files.  If it does and remote-path is
349             specified, then remote-path must specify a directory.
350
351             If the -a flag is specified, then attempt to resume partial
352             transfers of existing files.  Note that resumption assumes that
353             any partial copy of the remote file matches the local copy.  If
354             the local file contents differ from the remote local copy then
355             the resultant file is likely to be corrupt.
356
357             If the -f flag is specified, then a request will be sent to the
358             server to call fsync(2) after the file has been transferred.
359             Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
360             "fsync@openssh.com" extension.
361
362             If the -p flag is specified, then full file permissions and ac‐
363             cess times are copied too.
364
365             If the -R flag is specified then directories will be copied re‐
366             cursively.  Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links when
367             performing recursive transfers.
368
369     pwd     Display remote working directory.
370
371     quit    Quit sftp.
372
373     reget [-fpR] remote-path [local-path]
374             Resume download of remote-path.  Equivalent to get with the -a
375             flag set.
376
377     reput [-fpR] local-path [remote-path]
378             Resume upload of local-path.  Equivalent to put with the -a flag
379             set.
380
381     rename oldpath newpath
382             Rename remote file from oldpath to newpath.
383
384     rm path
385             Delete remote file specified by path.
386
387     rmdir path
388             Remove remote directory specified by path.
389
390     symlink oldpath newpath
391             Create a symbolic link from oldpath to newpath.
392
393     version
394             Display the sftp protocol version.
395
396     !command
397             Execute command in local shell.
398
399     !       Escape to local shell.
400
401     ?       Synonym for help.
402

SEE ALSO

404     ftp(1), ls(1), scp(1), ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-keygen(1), ssh_config(5),
405     glob(7), sftp-server(8), sshd(8)
406
407     T. Ylonen and S. Lehtinen, SSH File Transfer Protocol, draft-ietf-secsh-
408     filexfer-00.txt, January 2001, work in progress material.
409
410BSD                            February 12, 2021                           BSD
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