ftp(1tcp)
ftp --
file transfer program
Synopsis
ftp
[-c | -C]
[-dginptv]
[hostname]
Description
The ftp command is the user interface to the
ARPANET
standard File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
ftp allows you to transfer files to and from
sites on remote networks.
Options
Options may be specified at the command line, or to the
command interpreter.
- -c
-
Suppress the SYST message.
This option is used to avoid crashing a remote server
which does not process this
message and cannot deal with unknown messages.
If the first command after
FTP login results in the message
remote server has closed connection
,
you should add the -c option to the ftp command line
and retry the request.
- -C
-
Force ftp to send the SYST message.
This is the default action of ftp.
- -d
-
Enable debugging.
See the description of the debug command.
- -g
-
Disable file name globbing.
See the description of the glob command.
- -i
-
Turn off interactive prompting during
multiple file transfers.
See the description of the prompt command.
- -n
-
Restrain ftp
from attempting ``auto-login'' upon initial connection.
If auto-login is enabled,
ftp will check the .netrc file
in the user's home directory for an entry describing
an account on the remote machine.
If no entry exists, ftp
will prompt for the remote machine login name (default is the user
identity on the local machine), and, if necessary, prompt for a password
and an account with which to login.
See the description of the .netrc file below.
- -p
-
Enable passive mode.
Forces the ftp server to send a port number,
so that the ftp client
can use this port number to establish a connection to the server.
This option is used on ftp clients with firewalls
configured to disallow incoming calls to random port numbers.
See the description of the passive command.
- -t
-
Enable packet tracing.
See the description of the trace command.
- -v
-
Verbose on.
Forces ftp to show all responses from the remote server, as well
as report on data transfer statistics.
Normally, this is on by default,
unless the standard input is not a terminal.
See the description of the trace command.
The client host with which ftp
is to communicate may be specified on the command line.
If this is done, ftp
will immediately attempt to establish a connection to an FTP
server on that host; otherwise,
ftp will enter its command interpreter and await instructions
from the user.
When ftp is awaiting commands from the user the prompt ftp\>
is provided to the user.
Commands
The following commands are recognized by ftp.
Command arguments which have embedded spaces may be quoted with
quote (") marks.
- ! [ command [ args ] ]
-
Invoke an interactive shell on the local machine.
If there are arguments, the first is taken to be a command to execute
directly, with the rest of the arguments as its arguments.
- ? [ command ]
-
A synonym for help.
- $ macro-name [ args ]
-
Execute the macro macro-name that was defined with the
macdef command.
Arguments are passed to the macro unglobbed.
- account [ passwd ]
-
Supply a supplemental password required by a remote system for access
to resources once a login has been successfully completed.
If no argument is included, the user will be prompted for an account
password in a non-echoing input mode.
- append local-file [ remote-file ]
-
Append a local file to a file on the remote machine.
If remote-file is left unspecified,
the local file name is used in naming the
remote file after being altered by any
ntrans or nmap setting.
File transfer uses the current settings for
type, format, mode, and structure.
- ascii
-
Set the file transfer type to network ASCII.
This is the default type if the remote system does not identify itself as a
UNIX system.
- bell
-
Arrange that a bell be sounded after each file transfer
command is completed.
- binary
-
Set the file transfer type
to support binary image transfer.
This is the default type if the remote system identifies itself as a
UNIX system.
- bye
-
Terminate the FTP session with the remote server
and exit ftp.
An end of file will also terminate the session and exit.
- case
-
Toggle remote computer file name case mapping during
mget commands.
When case is on (default is off),
remote computer file names with all letters in
upper case are written in the local directory with the letters mapped
to lower case.
- cd remote-directory
-
Change the current directory on the remote machine
to remote-directory.
- cdup
-
Change the remote machine current directory to the parent of the
current remote machine current directory.
- chmod [ mode ] [ remote-file ]
-
Change file permissions of remote file.
- close
-
Terminate the FTP session with the remote server, and
return to the command interpreter.
Any defined macros are erased.
- cr
-
Toggle carriage return stripping during
ascii type file retrieval.
Records are denoted by a carriage return/linefeed sequence
during ascii type file transfer.
When
cr
is on (the default), carriage returns are stripped from this
sequence to conform with the UNIX single linefeed record
delimiter.
Records on non-UNIX remote systems may contain single linefeeds;
when
an ascii type transfer is made, these linefeeds may be
distinguished from a record delimiter only when
cr
is off.
- delete remote-file
-
Delete the file
remote-file
on the remote machine.
- debug [ debug-value ]
-
Toggle debugging mode.
If an optional debug-value is specified
it is used to set the debugging level.
When debugging is on,
ftp prints each command sent to the remote machine, preceded
by
-->
.
- dir [ remote-directory [ local-file ] ]
-
Print a listing of the directory contents in the
directory,
remote-directory,
and, optionally, placing the output in
local-file.
If interactive prompting is on,
ftp
will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the
target local file for receiving
dir
output.
If no directory is specified, the current
directory on the remote machine is used.
If no local file is specified, or local-file is ``-'',
output comes to the terminal.
- disconnect
-
A synonym for close.
- form format
-
Set the file transfer form to format.
The default and only supported format is file.
- get remote-file [ local-file ]
-
Retrieve the remote-file and store it on the local machine.
If the local file name is not specified, it is given the same
name it has on the remote machine, subject to
alteration by the current case, ntrans, and nmap settings.
The current settings for type, form, mode, and
struct are used while transferring the file.
- glob
-
Toggle filename expansion for mdelete, mget and mput.
If globbing is turned off with glob, the file name arguments
are taken literally and not expanded.
Globbing for mput is done as in
sh(1).
For mdelete and mget, each remote file name is expanded
separately on the remote machine and the lists are not merged.
Expansion of a directory name is likely to be
different from expansion of the name of an ordinary file:
the exact result depends on the foreign operating system and ftp server,
and can be previewed by doing mls remote-files -.
Note that mget and mput are not meant to transfer
entire directory subtrees of files.
That can be done by transferring a
tar(1)
archive
of the subtree (in binary mode).
- hash
-
Toggle hash-sign (#) printing for each data block transferred.
The size of a data block is BUFSIZ bytes.
BUFSIZ is defined in stdio.h.
- help [ command ]
-
Print an informative message about the meaning of command.
If no argument is given,
ftp prints a list of the known commands.
- idle [seconds]
-
Get the inactivity timeout period defined on the server, or try to set the
value of the timeout period on the server to seconds.
You will not be able to set the timeout period to a value that is larger
than the maximum timeout period defined on the server.
- image
-
Same as binary.
- lcd [ directory ]
-
Change the current directory on the local machine.
If no directory
is specified, the user's home directory is used.
- ls [ remote-directory [ local-file ] ]
-
Print an abbreviated listing of the contents of a
directory on the remote machine.
The listing includes any system-dependent information that the server
chooses to include; for example, most UNIX systems will produce
output from the command ls -l (see also nlist).
If remote-directory is left unspecified, the current directory is used.
If interactive prompting is on,
ftp will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the
target local file for receiving ls output.
If no local file is specified, or if local-file is ``-'',
the output is sent to the terminal.
Additional options may be specified by quoting the arguments.
For example, ls "-rt dir", will cause a time sorted listing of
directory dir to be displayed if the remote operating system is UNIX.
- macdef macro-name
-
Define a macro.
Subsequent lines are stored as the macro
macro-name; a null line (consecutive newline characters
in a file or
carriage returns from the terminal) terminates macro input mode.
There is a limit of 16 macros and 4096 total characters in all
defined macros.
Macros remain defined until a
close
command is executed.
The macro processor interprets ``$'' and ``\'' as special characters.
A ``$'' followed by a number (or numbers) is replaced by the
corresponding argument on the macro invocation command line.
A ``$'' followed by an ``i'' signals that macro processor that the
executing macro is to be looped. On the first pass ``$i'' is
replaced by the first argument on the macro invocation command line,
on the second pass it is replaced by the second argument, and so on.
A ``\'' followed by any character is replaced by that character.
Use the ``\'' to prevent special treatment of the ``$''.
- mdelete [ remote-files ]
-
Delete the remote-files on the remote machine.
- mdir remote-files local-file
-
Like dir, except multiple remote files may be specified.
If interactive prompting is on,
ftp will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the
target local file for receiving mdir output.
- mget remote-files
-
Expand the remote-files on the remote machine
and do a get for each file name thus produced.
See glob for details on the filename expansion.
Resulting file names will then be processed according to
case, ntrans, and nmap settings.
Files are transferred into the local current directory,
which can be changed with lcd directory;
new local directories can be created with ! mkdir directory.
- mkdir directory-name
-
Make a directory on the remote machine.
- mls remote-files local-file
-
Like nlist, except multiple remote files may be specified,
and the local-file must be specified.
If interactive prompting is on,
ftp will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the
target local file for receiving mls output.
- mode [ mode-name ]
-
Set the file transfer mode to mode-name.
The default and only supported mode-name is stream.
- modtime file-name
-
Show the last modification time of the file on the remote machine.
- mput local-files
-
Expand wild cards in the list of local files given as arguments
and do a put for each file in the resulting list.
See glob for details of filename expansion.
Resulting file names will then be processed according to
ntrans and nmap settings.
The mput command does not allow specifying remote file names.
- passive
-
Toggle passive mode.
When passive mode is turned on,
the ftp client host sends a PASV request
to the ftp server when it attempts to establish a
connection for data transfer (see
ftpd(1Mtcp)).
The ftp server does a passive open on some random port
and sends the port number back to the ftp client.
Using this port number,
the ftp client then does an active open
to the ftp server to establish the connection.
Passive mode is typically used on clients with firewalls,
where the firewalls are configured
to disallow incoming calls to random port numbers.
By default, passive mode is turned off.
When passive mode is off,
the ftp client host sends a PORT request
to the ftp server when it attempts to establish a
connection for data transfer (see sendport).
- newer remote-file [ local-file ]
-
Get file if remote-file is newer than local-file.
- nlist [ remote-directory [ local-file ] ]
-
Print a list of the files of a directory on the remote machine.
If remote-directory is left unspecified, the current directory is used.
If interactive prompting is on,
ftp will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the
target local file for receiving nlist output.
If no local file is specified, or if local-file is ``-'',
the output is sent to the terminal.
Additional options may be specified by quoting the arguments.
For example, nlist "-rt dir" will cause a time sorted listing
of directory dir to be displayed.
- nmap [ inpattern outpattern ]
-
Set or unset the filename mapping mechanism.
If no arguments are specified, the filename mapping mechanism is unset.
If arguments are specified, remote filenames are mapped during
mput commands and put commands
issued without a specified remote target filename.
If arguments are specified, local filenames are mapped during
mget commands and get commands
issued without a specified local target filename.
This command is useful when connecting to a non-UNIX remote computer
with different file naming conventions or practices.
The mapping follows the pattern set by inpattern and outpattern.
inpattern is a template for incoming filenames
(which may have already been processed
according to the ntrans and case settings).
Variable templating is accomplished by including
the sequences ``$1, $2, ..., $9'' in inpattern.
Use ``\'' to prevent this special treatment of the ``$'' character.
All other characters are treated literally, and are used to determine the
nmap inpattern variable values.
For example, given inpattern=``$1.$2''
and the remote file mydata.data
$1 would have the value ``mydata'',
and $2 would have the value ``data''.
The outpattern determines the resulting mapped filename.
The sequences ``$1, $2, ...., $9'' are replaced by any value resulting
from the inpattern template.
The sequence ``$0'' is replaced by the original filename.
Additionally, the sequence ``[seq1,seq4]'' is replaced by
seq1 if seq1 is not a null string;
otherwise it is replaced by seq2.
For example, the command nmap $1.$2.$3 [$1,$2].[$2,file] would yield
the output filename ``myfile.data'' for input filenames ``myfile.data'' and
``myfile.data.old'' ``myfile.file'' for the input filename ``myfile'' and
``myfile.myfile'' for the input filename ``.myfile''.
Spaces may be included in outpattern,
as in the example: nmap $1 |sed "s/ *$//" > $1 .
Use the ``\'' character to prevent special treatment
of the ``$'', ``['', ``]'', and ``,'' characters.
- ntrans [ inchars [ outchars ] ]
-
Set or unset the filename character translation mechanism.
If no arguments are specified, the filename character
translation mechanism is unset.
If arguments are specified, characters in
remote filenames are translated during mput commands and put
commands issued without a specified remote target filename.
If arguments are specified, characters in
local filenames are translated during mget commands and get
commands issued without a specified local target filename.
This command is useful when connecting to a non-UNIX remote computer
with different file naming conventions or practices.
Characters in a filename matching a character in inchars
are replaced with the corresponding character in outchars.
If the character's position in inchars
is longer than the length of outchars,
the character is deleted from the file name.
- open host [ port ]
-
Establish a connection to the specified host FTP server.
An optional port number may be supplied,
in which case, ftp will attempt to contact an FTP server at that port.
If the auto-login option is on (default),
ftp will also attempt to automatically log the user in to
the FTP server (see below).
- prompt
-
Toggle interactive prompting.
Interactive prompting
occurs during multiple file transfers to allow the
user to selectively retrieve or store files.
If prompting is turned off (default is on), any mget or mput
will transfer all files, and any mdelete will delete all files.
- proxy ftp-command
-
Execute an ftp command on a secondary control connection.
This command allows simultaneous connection to two remote FTP
servers for transferring files between the two servers.
The first
proxy
command should be an
open,
to establish the secondary control connection.
The command proxy ? displays the other ftp commands executable on the
secondary connection.
The following commands behave differently when prefaced by
proxy:
open
will not define new macros during the auto-login process,
close
will not erase existing macro definitions,
get
and
mget
transfer files from the host on the primary control connection
to the host on the secondary control connection, and
put,
mput,
and
append
transfer files from the host on the secondary control connection
to the host on the primary control connection.
Third party file transfers depend upon support of the
PASV request by the server on the secondary control connection
(see passive).
- put local-file [ remote-file ]
-
Store a local file on the remote machine.
If remote-file is left unspecified, the local file name is used
after processing according to any
ntrans or nmap settings in naming the remote file.
File transfer uses the current settings for type, format, mode, and structure.
- pwd
-
Print the name of the current directory on the remote machine.
- quit
-
A synonym for
bye.
- quote arg1 arg2 ...
-
The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote FTP
server.
- recv remote-file [ local-file ]
-
A synonym for get.
- reget
-
Retrieve a file restarting at the end of the local-file.
- restart
-
Restart the transfer of a file from a particular byte-count.
- rhelp [ command-name ]
-
Request help from the remote FTP server.
If a command-name is specified it is supplied to the server as well.
- rstatus [ file-name ]
-
With no arguments, show status of remote-machine.
If file-name is specified,
show status of file-name on remote machine.
- rename [ from ] [ to ]
-
Rename the file
from
on the remote machine, to the file
to.
- reset
-
Clear reply queue.
This command re-synchronizes command/reply sequencing with the remote
ftp server.
Resynchronization may be necessary following a violation of the ftp protocol
by the remote server.
- rmdir directory-name
-
Delete a directory on the remote machine.
- runique
-
Toggle storing of files on the local system with unique filenames.
If a file already exists with a name equal to the target
local filename for a get or mget
command, a ``.1'' is appended to the name.
If the resulting name matches another existing file,
a ``.2'' is appended to the original name.
If this process continues up to ``.99'', an error
message is printed, and the transfer does not take place.
The generated unique filename will be reported.
Note that
runique
will not affect local files generated from a shell command
(see below).
The default value is off.
- send local-file [ remote-file ]
-
A synonym for put.
- sendport
-
Toggle the use of PORT requests.
By default, ftp attempts to use a PORT request
when establishing a connection for each data transfer.
This helps prevent delays when performing multiple file transfers.
When a ftp client sends a PORT request
to a ftp server,
the client tells the server which port it will be listening on
and the server does an active open to establish the connection.
If the PORT request fails,
ftp uses the default data port.
When sendport is turned off,
no attempt is made to use PORT requests for each data transfer.
This is useful for FTP implementations
which ignore PORT requests but, incorrectly,
indicate that the PORT requests have been accepted.
- size file-name
-
Return size of file-name on remote machine.
- status
-
Show the current status of ftp.
- site [ command ]
-
Get/set site specific information from/on remote machine.
- struct [ struct-name ]
-
Set the file transfer structure to struct-name.
The default and only supported struct-name is stream
- sunique
-
Toggle storing of files on remote machine under unique file names.
The remote FTP server must support the FTP protocol command STOU for
successful completion.
The remote server will report unique name.
Default value is off.
- system
-
Show the type of operating system running on the remote machine.
- tenex
-
Set the file transfer type to that needed to
talk to TENEX machines.
- trace
-
Toggle packet tracing.
- type [ type-name ]
-
Set the requested file transfer type to type-name.
The type-name argument may be one of ascii,
binary (or equivalently, image),
ebcdic, and tenex (for local byte size 8).
NOTE: The remote FTP server may
not support transfer types such as ebcdic.
If no type-name is specified, ftp
displays the current type.
The default type is binary if a remote system identifies
itself as a UNIX system; otherwise, the default type is ascii.
- umask [ mask ]
-
Set user file-creation mode mask on the remote site.
If mask is omitted, the current value of the mask is printed.
- user user-name [ password ] [ account ]
-
Identify yourself to the remote FTP server.
If the password is not specified and the server requires it,
ftp
will prompt the user for it (after disabling local echo).
If an account field is not specified, and the FTP server
requires it, the user will be prompted for it.
If an account field is specified, an account command will
be relayed to the remote server after the login sequence
is completed if the remote server did not require it
for logging in.
Unless
ftp
is invoked with ``auto-login'' disabled, this
process is done automatically on initial connection to
the FTP server.
- verbose
-
Toggle verbose mode.
In verbose mode, all responses from the FTP server are displayed to the user.
In addition,
if verbose is on, when a file transfer completes, statistics
regarding the efficiency of the transfer are reported.
By default, verbose is on.
Aborting a file transfer
To abort a file transfer, use the terminal interrupt key
(usually <Delete> or <Ctrl-C>).
Sending transfers will be immediately halted.
Receiving transfers will be halted by sending a ftp protocol ABORT
command to the remote server, and discarding any further data received.
The speed at which this is accomplished depends upon the remote
server's support for ABORT processing.
If the remote server does not support the ABORT command, an ftp>
prompt will not appear until the remote server has completed
sending the requested file.
The terminal interrupt key sequence will be ignored when
ftp
has completed any local processing and is awaiting a reply
from the remote server.
A long delay in this mode may result from the ABORT processing described
above, or from unexpected behavior by the remote server, including
violations of the ftp protocol.
If the delay results from unexpected remote server behavior, the local
ftp
program must be killed by hand.
File naming conventions
Files specified as arguments to ftp
commands are processed according to the following rules.
-
If the file name ``-'' is specified, the
-
stdin (for reading) or stdout (for writing) is used.
-
If the first character of the file name is ``|'' the
remainder of the argument is interpreted as a shell command.
ftp then forks a shell, using
popen(3S)
with the argument supplied,
and reads (writes) from the stdout (stdin).
If the shell command includes spaces, the argument must be quoted.
A particularly useful example of this mechanism is:
dir . | pg".
-
Failing the above checks, if ``globbing'' is enabled,
local file names are expanded
according to the rules used in the
sh(1);
compare with the glob command.
If the ftp command expects a single local file
(for example, with put),
only the first filename generated by the ``globbing'' operation is used.
-
For mget commands and get commands
with unspecified local file names,
the local filename is the remote filename,
which may be altered by a case,
ntrans, or nmap setting.
The resulting filename may then be altered if runique is on.
-
For mput commands and put commands
with unspecified remote file names, the remote filename is
the local filename, which may be altered by a
ntrans or nmap setting.
The resulting filename may then be altered by the remote server if
sunique is on.
The .netrc file
The .netrc file contains login and initialization information
used by the auto-login process.
It resides in the user's home directory.
See
netrc(4tcp)
for a description of the format of this file.
Files
- $HOME/.netrc
-
auto-login tokens file
- /usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/uxftp
-
language-specific message file (See LANG on
environ(5)).
References
ftpd(1Mtcp),
netrc(4tcp),
tftp(1tcp),
tftpd(1Mtcp)
Notices
Correct execution of many commands depends upon proper behavior
by the remote server.
An error in the treatment of carriage returns
in the 4.2BSD ascii-mode transfer code
has been corrected.
This correction may result in incorrect transfers of binary files
to and from 4.2BSD servers using the ascii type.
Avoid this problem by using the binary file transfer type.
30 January 1998
© 1998 The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. All rights reserved.