1FTP(1) BSD General Commands Manual FTP(1)
2
4 ftp — Internet file transfer program
5
7 ftp [-pinegvd] [host]
8 pftp [-inegvd] [host]
9
11 Ftp is the user interface to the Internet standard File Transfer Proto‐
12 col. The program allows a user to transfer files to and from a remote
13 network site.
14 Options may be specified at the command line, or to the command inter‐
16 preter.
17 -p Use passive mode for data transfers. Allows use of ftp in environ‐
19 ments where a firewall prevents connections from the outside world
20 back to the client machine. Requires that the ftp server support
21 the PASV command. This is the default now for all clients (ftp and
22 pftp) due to security concerns using the PORT transfer mode. The
23 flag is kept for compatibility only and has no effect anymore.
24 -i Turns off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers.
26 -n Restrains ftp from attempting “auto-login” upon initial connection.
28 If auto-login is enabled, ftp will check the .netrc (see netrc(5))
29 file in the user's home directory for an entry describing an
30 account on the remote machine. If no entry exists, ftp will prompt
31 for the remote machine login name (default is the user identity on
32 the local machine), and, if necessary, prompt for a password and an
33 account with which to login.
34 -e Disables command editing and history support, if it was compiled
36 into the ftp executable. Otherwise, does nothing.
37 -g Disables file name globbing.
39 -m The default requires that ftp explicitly binds to the same inter‐
41 face for the data channel as the control channel in passive mode.
42 Useful on multi-homed clients. This option disables this behavior.
43 -v Verbose option forces ftp to show all responses from the remote
45 server, as well as report on data transfer statistics.
46 -d Enables debugging.
48 The client host with which ftp is to communicate may be specified on the
50 command line. If this is done, ftp will immediately attempt to establish
51 a connection to an FTP server on that host; otherwise, ftp will enter its
52 command interpreter and await instructions from the user. When ftp is
53 awaiting commands from the user the prompt ‘ftp>’ is provided to the
54 user. The following commands are recognized by ftp:
55 ! [command [args]]
57 Invoke an interactive shell on the local machine. If there
58 are arguments, the first is taken to be a command to execute
59 directly, with the rest of the arguments as its arguments.
60 $ macro-name [args]
62 Execute the macro macro-name that was defined with the macdef
63 command. Arguments are passed to the macro unglobbed.
64 account [passwd]
66 Supply a supplemental password required by a remote system
67 for access to resources once a login has been successfully
68 completed. If no argument is included, the user will be
69 prompted for an account password in a non-echoing input mode.
70 append local-file [remote-file]
72 Append a local file to a file on the remote machine. If
73 remote-file is left unspecified, the local file name is used
74 in naming the remote file after being altered by any ntrans
75 or nmap setting. File transfer uses the current settings for
76 type, format, mode, and structure.
77 ascii Set the file transfer type to network ASCII. This is the
79 default type.
80 bell Arrange that a bell be sounded after each file transfer com‐
82 mand is completed.
83 binary Set the file transfer type to support binary image transfer.
85 bye Terminate the FTP session with the remote server and exit
87 ftp. An end of file will also terminate the session and
88 exit.
89 case Toggle remote computer file name case mapping during mget
91 commands. When case is on (default is off), remote computer
92 file names with all letters in upper case are written in the
93 local directory with the letters mapped to lower case.
94 cd remote-directory
96 Change the working directory on the remote machine to
97 remote-directory.
98 cdup Change the remote machine working directory to the parent of
100 the current remote machine working directory.
101 chmod mode file-name
103 Change the permission modes of the file file-name on the
104 remote sytem to mode.
105 close Terminate the FTP session with the remote server, and return
107 to the command interpreter. Any defined macros are erased.
108 cr Toggle carriage return stripping during ascii type file
110 retrieval. Records are denoted by a carriage return/linefeed
111 sequence during ascii type file transfer. When cr is on (the
112 default), carriage returns are stripped from this sequence to
113 conform with the UNIX single linefeed record delimiter.
114 Records on non-UNIX remote systems may contain single line‐
115 feeds; when an ascii type transfer is made, these linefeeds
116 may be distinguished from a record delimiter only when cr is
117 off.
118 delete remote-file
120 Delete the file remote-file on the remote machine.
121 debug [debug-value]
123 Toggle debugging mode. If an optional debug-value is speci‐
124 fied it is used to set the debugging level. When debugging
125 is on, ftp prints each command sent to the remote machine,
126 preceded by the string ‘-->’
127 dir [remote-directory] [local-file]
129 Print a listing of the directory contents in the directory,
130 remote-directory, and, optionally, placing the output in
131 local-file. If interactive prompting is on, ftp will prompt
132 the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the tar‐
133 get local file for receiving dir output. If no directory is
134 specified, the current working directory on the remote
135 machine is used. If no local file is specified, or
136 local-file is -, output comes to the terminal.
137 disconnect A synonym for close.
139 form format
141 Set the file transfer form to format. The default format is
142 “file”.
143 get remote-file [local-file]
145 Retrieve the remote-file and store it on the local machine.
146 If the local file name is not specified, it is given the same
147 name it has on the remote machine, subject to alteration by
148 the current case, ntrans, and nmap settings. The current
149 settings for type, form, mode, and structure are used while
150 transferring the file.
151 glob Toggle filename expansion for mdelete, mget and mput. If
153 globbing is turned off with glob, the file name arguments are
154 taken literally and not expanded. Globbing for mput is done
155 as in csh(1). For mdelete and mget, each remote file name is
156 expanded separately on the remote machine and the lists are
157 not merged. Expansion of a directory name is likely to be
158 different from expansion of the name of an ordinary file: the
159 exact result depends on the foreign operating system and ftp
160 server, and can be previewed by doing ‘mls remote-files -’
161 Note: mget and mput are not meant to transfer entire direc‐
162 tory subtrees of files. That can be done by transferring a
163 tar(1) archive of the subtree (in binary mode).
164 hash Toggle hash-sign (``#'') printing for each data block trans‐
166 ferred. The size of a data block is 1024 bytes.
167 help [command]
169 Print an informative message about the meaning of command.
170 If no argument is given, ftp prints a list of the known com‐
171 mands.
172 idle [seconds]
174 Set the inactivity timer on the remote server to seconds sec‐
175 onds. If seconds is ommitted, the current inactivity timer
176 is printed.
177 lcd [directory]
179 Change the working directory on the local machine. If no
180 directory is specified, the user's home directory is used.
181 ls [remote-directory] [local-file]
183 Print a listing of the contents of a directory on the remote
184 machine. The listing includes any system-dependent informa‐
185 tion that the server chooses to include; for example, most
186 UNIX systems will produce output from the command ‘ls -l’.
187 (See also nlist.) If remote-directory is left unspecified,
188 the current working directory is used. If interactive
189 prompting is on, ftp will prompt the user to verify that the
190 last argument is indeed the target local file for receiving
191 ls output. If no local file is specified, or if local-file
192 is ‘-’, the output is sent to the terminal.
193 macdef macro-name
195 Define a macro. Subsequent lines are stored as the macro
196 macro-name; a null line (consecutive newline characters in a
197 file or carriage returns from the terminal) terminates macro
198 input mode. There is a limit of 16 macros and 4096 total
199 characters in all defined macros. Macros remain defined
200 until a close command is executed. The macro processor
201 interprets `$' and `\' as special characters. A `$' followed
202 by a number (or numbers) is replaced by the corresponding
203 argument on the macro invocation command line. A `$' fol‐
204 lowed by an `i' signals that macro processor that the execut‐
205 ing macro is to be looped. On the first pass `$i' is
206 replaced by the first argument on the macro invocation com‐
207 mand line, on the second pass it is replaced by the second
208 argument, and so on. A `\' followed by any character is
209 replaced by that character. Use the `\' to prevent special
210 treatment of the `$'.
211 mdelete [remote-files]
213 Delete the remote-files on the remote machine.
214 mdir remote-files local-file
216 Like dir, except multiple remote files may be specified. If
217 interactive prompting is on, ftp will prompt the user to ver‐
218 ify that the last argument is indeed the target local file
219 for receiving mdir output.
220 mget remote-files
222 Expand the remote-files on the remote machine and do a get
223 for each file name thus produced. See glob for details on
224 the filename expansion. Resulting file names will then be
225 processed according to case, ntrans, and nmap settings.
226 Files are transferred into the local working directory, which
227 can be changed with ‘lcd directory’; new local directories
228 can be created with ‘! mkdir directory’.
229 mkdir directory-name
231 Make a directory on the remote machine.
232 mls remote-files local-file
234 Like nlist, except multiple remote files may be specified,
235 and the local-file must be specified. If interactive prompt‐
236 ing is on, ftp will prompt the user to verify that the last
237 argument is indeed the target local file for receiving mls
238 output.
239 mode [mode-name]
241 Set the file transfer mode to mode-name. The default mode is
242 “stream” mode.
243 modtime file-name
245 Show the last modification time of the file on the remote
246 machine.
247 mput local-files
249 Expand wild cards in the list of local files given as argu‐
250 ments and do a put for each file in the resulting list. See
251 glob for details of filename expansion. Resulting file names
252 will then be processed according to ntrans and nmap settings.
253 newer file-name [local-file]
255 Get the file only if the modification time of the remote file
256 is more recent that the file on the current system. If the
257 file does not exist on the current system, the remote file is
258 considered newer. Otherwise, this command is identical to
259 get.
260 nlist [remote-directory] [local-file]
262 Print a list of the files in a directory on the remote
263 machine. If remote-directory is left unspecified, the cur‐
264 rent working directory is used. If interactive prompting is
265 on, ftp will prompt the user to verify that the last argument
266 is indeed the target local file for receiving nlist output.
267 If no local file is specified, or if local-file is -, the
268 output is sent to the terminal.
269 nmap [inpattern outpattern]
271 Set or unset the filename mapping mechanism. If no arguments
272 are specified, the filename mapping mechanism is unset. If
273 arguments are specified, remote filenames are mapped during
274 mput commands and put commands issued without a specified
275 remote target filename. If arguments are specified, local
276 filenames are mapped during mget commands and get commands
277 issued without a specified local target filename. This com‐
278 mand is useful when connecting to a non-UNIX remote computer
279 with different file naming conventions or practices. The
280 mapping follows the pattern set by inpattern and outpattern.
281 [Inpattern] is a template for incoming filenames (which may
282 have already been processed according to the ntrans and case
283 settings). Variable templating is accomplished by including
284 the sequences `$1', `$2', ..., `$9' in inpattern. Use `\' to
285 prevent this special treatment of the `$' character. All
286 other characters are treated literally, and are used to
287 determine the nmap [inpattern] variable values. For example,
288 given inpattern $1.$2 and the remote file name "mydata.data",
289 $1 would have the value "mydata", and $2 would have the value
290 "data". The outpattern determines the resulting mapped file‐
291 name. The sequences `$1', `$2', ...., `$9' are replaced by
292 any value resulting from the inpattern template. The
293 sequence `$0' is replace by the original filename. Addition‐
294 ally, the sequence ‘[seq1, seq2]’ is replaced by [seq1] if
295 seq1 is not a null string; otherwise it is replaced by seq2.
296 For example, the command
297 nmap $1.$2.$3 [$1,$2].[$2,file]
299 would yield the output filename "myfile.data" for input file‐
301 names "myfile.data" and "myfile.data.old", "myfile.file" for
302 the input filename "myfile", and "myfile.myfile" for the
303 input filename ".myfile". Spaces may be included in
304 outpattern, as in the example: `nmap $1 sed "s/ *$//" > $1'
305 . Use the `\' character to prevent special treatment of the
306 `$','[','[', and `,' characters.
307 ntrans [inchars [outchars]]
309 Set or unset the filename character translation mechanism.
310 If no arguments are specified, the filename character trans‐
311 lation mechanism is unset. If arguments are specified, char‐
312 acters in remote filenames are translated during mput com‐
313 mands and put commands issued without a specified remote tar‐
314 get filename. If arguments are specified, characters in
315 local filenames are translated during mget commands and get
316 commands issued without a specified local target filename.
317 This command is useful when connecting to a non-UNIX remote
318 computer with different file naming conventions or practices.
319 Characters in a filename matching a character in inchars are
320 replaced with the corresponding character in outchars. If
321 the character's position in inchars is longer than the length
322 of outchars, the character is deleted from the file name.
323 open host [port]
325 Establish a connection to the specified host FTP server. An
326 optional port number may be supplied, in which case, ftp will
327 attempt to contact an FTP server at that port. If the
328 auto-login option is on (default), ftp will also attempt to
329 automatically log the user in to the FTP server (see below).
330 prompt Toggle interactive prompting. Interactive prompting occurs
332 during multiple file transfers to allow the user to selec‐
333 tively retrieve or store files. If prompting is turned off
334 (default is on), any mget or mput will transfer all files,
335 and any mdelete will delete all files.
336 proxy ftp-command
338 Execute an ftp command on a secondary control connection.
339 This command allows simultaneous connection to two remote ftp
340 servers for transferring files between the two servers. The
341 first proxy command should be an open, to establish the sec‐
342 ondary control connection. Enter the command "proxy ?" to
343 see other ftp commands executable on the secondary connec‐
344 tion. The following commands behave differently when pref‐
345 aced by proxy: open will not define new macros during the
346 auto-login process, close will not erase existing macro defi‐
347 nitions, get and mget transfer files from the host on the
348 primary control connection to the host on the secondary con‐
349 trol connection, and put, mput, and append transfer files
350 from the host on the secondary control connection to the host
351 on the primary control connection. Third party file trans‐
352 fers depend upon support of the ftp protocol PASV command by
353 the server on the secondary control connection.
354 put local-file [remote-file]
356 Store a local file on the remote machine. If remote-file is
357 left unspecified, the local file name is used after process‐
358 ing according to any ntrans or nmap settings in naming the
359 remote file. File transfer uses the current settings for
360 type, format, mode, and structure.
361 pwd Print the name of the current working directory on the remote
363 machine.
364 quit A synonym for bye.
366 quote arg1 arg2 ...
368 The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote FTP
369 server.
370 recv remote-file [local-file]
372 A synonym for get.
373 reget remote-file [local-file]
375 Reget acts like get, except that if local-file exists and is
376 smaller than remote-file, local-file is presumed to be a par‐
377 tially transferred copy of remote-file and the transfer is
378 continued from the apparent point of failure. This command
379 is useful when transferring very large files over networks
380 that are prone to dropping connections.
381 remotehelp [command-name]
383 Request help from the remote FTP server. If a command-name
384 is specified it is supplied to the server as well.
385 remotestatus [file-name]
387 With no arguments, show status of remote machine. If
388 file-name is specified, show status of file-name on remote
389 machine.
390 rename [from] [to]
392 Rename the file from on the remote machine, to the file to.
393 reset Clear reply queue. This command re-synchronizes com‐
395 mand/reply sequencing with the remote ftp server. Resynchro‐
396 nization may be necessary following a violation of the ftp
397 protocol by the remote server.
398 restart marker
400 Restart the immediately following get or put at the indicated
401 marker. On UNIX systems, marker is usually a byte offset
402 into the file.
403 rmdir directory-name
405 Delete a directory on the remote machine.
406 runique Toggle storing of files on the local system with unique file‐
408 names. If a file already exists with a name equal to the
409 target local filename for a get or mget command, a ".1" is
410 appended to the name. If the resulting name matches another
411 existing file, a ".2" is appended to the original name. If
412 this process continues up to ".99", an error message is
413 printed, and the transfer does not take place. The generated
414 unique filename will be reported. Note that runique will not
415 affect local files generated from a shell command (see
416 below). The default value is off.
417 send local-file [remote-file]
419 A synonym for put.
420 sendport Toggle the use of PORT commands. By default, ftp will
422 attempt to use a PORT command when establishing a connection
423 for each data transfer. The use of PORT commands can prevent
424 delays when performing multiple file transfers. If the PORT
425 command fails, ftp will use the default data port. When the
426 use of PORT commands is disabled, no attempt will be made to
427 use PORT commands for each data transfer. This is useful for
428 certain FTP implementations which do ignore PORT commands
429 but, incorrectly, indicate they've been accepted.
430 site arg1 arg2 ...
432 The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote FTP
433 server as a SITE command.
434 size file-name
436 Return size of file-name on remote machine.
437 status Show the current status of ftp.
439 struct [struct-name]
441 Set the file transfer structure to struct-name. By default
442 “stream” structure is used.
443 sunique Toggle storing of files on remote machine under unique file
445 names. Remote ftp server must support ftp protocol STOU com‐
446 mand for successful completion. The remote server will
447 report unique name. Default value is off.
448 system Show the type of operating system running on the remote
450 machine.
451 tenex Set the file transfer type to that needed to talk to TENEX
453 machines.
454 trace Toggle packet tracing.
456 type [type-name]
458 Set the file transfer type to type-name. If no type is spec‐
459 ified, the current type is printed. The default type is net‐
460 work ASCII.
461 umask [newmask]
463 Set the default umask on the remote server to newmask. If
464 newmask is ommitted, the current umask is printed.
465 user user-name [password] [account]
467 Identify yourself to the remote FTP server. If the password
468 is not specified and the server requires it, ftp will prompt
469 the user for it (after disabling local echo). If an account
470 field is not specified, and the FTP server requires it, the
471 user will be prompted for it. If an account field is speci‐
472 fied, an account command will be relayed to the remote server
473 after the login sequence is completed if the remote server
474 did not require it for logging in. Unless ftp is invoked
475 with “auto-login” disabled, this process is done automati‐
476 cally on initial connection to the FTP server.
477 verbose Toggle verbose mode. In verbose mode, all responses from the
479 FTP server are displayed to the user. In addition, if ver‐
480 bose is on, when a file transfer completes, statistics
481 regarding the efficiency of the transfer are reported. By
482 default, verbose is on.
483 ? [command]
485 A synonym for help.
486 Command arguments which have embedded spaces may be quoted with quote `"'
488 marks.
489
491 To abort a file transfer, use the terminal interrupt key (usually Ctrl-
492 C). Sending transfers will be immediately halted. Receiving transfers
493 will be halted by sending a ftp protocol ABOR command to the remote
494 server, and discarding any further data received. The speed at which
495 this is accomplished depends upon the remote server's support for ABOR
496 processing. If the remote server does not support the ABOR command, an
497 ‘ftp>’ prompt will not appear until the remote server has completed send‐
498 ing the requested file.
499 The terminal interrupt key sequence will be ignored when ftp has com‐
501 pleted any local processing and is awaiting a reply from the remote
502 server. A long delay in this mode may result from the ABOR processing
503 described above, or from unexpected behavior by the remote server,
504 including violations of the ftp protocol. If the delay results from
505 unexpected remote server behavior, the local ftp program must be killed
506 by hand.
507
509 Files specified as arguments to ftp commands are processed according to
510 the following rules.
511 1. If the file name ‘-’ is specified, the stdin (for reading) or stdout
513 (for writing) is used.
514 2. If the first character of the file name is ‘|’, the remainder of the
516 argument is interpreted as a shell command. Ftp then forks a shell,
517 using popen(3) with the argument supplied, and reads (writes) from
518 the stdout (stdin). If the shell command includes spaces, the argu‐
519 ment must be quoted; e.g. “" ls -lt"”. A particularly useful exam‐
520 ple of this mechanism is: “dir more”.
521 3. Failing the above checks, if ``globbing'' is enabled, local file
523 names are expanded according to the rules used in the csh(1); c.f.
524 the glob command. If the ftp command expects a single local file
525 (.e.g. put), only the first filename generated by the "globbing"
526 operation is used.
527 4. For mget commands and get commands with unspecified local file
529 names, the local filename is the remote filename, which may be
530 altered by a case, ntrans, or nmap setting. The resulting filename
531 may then be altered if runique is on.
532 5. For mput commands and put commands with unspecified remote file
534 names, the remote filename is the local filename, which may be
535 altered by a ntrans or nmap setting. The resulting filename may
536 then be altered by the remote server if sunique is on.
537
539 The FTP specification specifies many parameters which may affect a file
540 transfer. The type may be one of “ascii”, “image” (binary), “ebcdic”,
541 and “local byte size” (for PDP-10's and PDP-20's mostly). Ftp supports
542 the ascii and image types of file transfer, plus local byte size 8 for
543 tenex mode transfers.
544 Ftp supports only the default values for the remaining file transfer
546 parameters: mode, form, and struct.
547
549 Ftp utilizes the following environment variables.
550 HOME For default location of a .netrc file, if one exists.
552 SHELL For default shell.
554
556 ftpd(8), RFC 959
557
559 The ftp command appeared in 4.2BSD.
560
562 Correct execution of many commands depends upon proper behavior by the
563 remote server.
564 An error in the treatment of carriage returns in the 4.2BSD ascii-mode
566 transfer code has been corrected. This correction may result in incor‐
567 rect transfers of binary files to and from 4.2BSD servers using the ascii
568 type. Avoid this problem by using the binary image type.
569Linux NetKit (0.17) August 15, 1999 Linux NetKit (0.17)