Learn the UNIX/Linux command line
Home Man Pages
FTP(1) BSD General Commands Manual FTP(1)
NAME
ftp - Internet file transfer program
SYNOPSIS
ftp [-pinegvd] [host]
pftp [-inegvd] [host]
DESCRIPTION
Ftp is the user interface to the Internet standard File Transfer Proto-
col. The program allows a user to transfer files to and from a remote
network site.
Options may be specified at the command line, or to the command inter-
preter.
-p Use passive mode for data transfers. Allows use of ftp in environ-
ments where a firewall prevents connections from the outside world
back to the client machine. Requires that the ftp server support
the PASV command. This is the default now for all clients (ftp and
pftp) due to security concerns using the PORT transfer mode. The
flag is kept for compatibility only and has no effect anymore.
-i Turns off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers.
-n Restrains ftp from attempting "auto-login" upon initial connec-
tion. If auto-login is enabled, ftp will check the .netrc (see
netrc(5)) file in the user's home directory for an entry describ-
ing 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.
-e Disables command editing and history support, if it was compiled
into the ftp executable. Otherwise, does nothing.
-g Disables file name globbing.
-v Verbose option forces ftp to show all responses from the remote
server, as well as report on data transfer statistics.
-d Enables debugging.
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 estab-
lish 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 pro-
vided to the user. The following commands are recognized by ftp:
! [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.
$ 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.
bell Arrange that a bell be sounded after each file transfer com-
mand is completed.
binary Set the file transfer type to support binary image transfer.
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 working directory on the remote machine to
remote-directory.
cdup Change the remote machine working directory to the parent of
the current remote machine working directory.
chmod mode file-name
Change the permission modes of the file file-name on the
remote sytem to mode.
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/line-
feed 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 speci-
fied it is used to set the debugging level. When debugging
is on, ftp prints each command sent to the remote machine,
preceded by the string '-->'
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 tar-
get local file for receiving dir output. If no directory is
specified, the current working 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 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 alter-
ation by the current case, ntrans, and nmap settings. The
current settings for type, form, mode, and structure 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 csh(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 oper-
ating system and ftp server, and can be previewed by doing
'mls remote-files -' Note: 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 trans-
ferred. The size of a data block is 1024 bytes.
help [command]
Print an informative message about the meaning of command.
If no argument is given, ftp prints a list of the known com-
mands.
idle [seconds]
Set the inactivity timer on the remote server to seconds
seconds. If seconds is ommitted, the current inactivity
timer is printed.
lcd [directory]
Change the working directory on the local machine. If no
directory is specified, the user's home directory is used.
ls [remote-directory] [local-file]
Print a listing of the contents of a directory on the remote
machine. The listing includes any system-dependent informa-
tion 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 working 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.
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 '$' and '\' as special characters. A '$' fol-
lowed by a number (or numbers) is replaced by the corre-
sponding 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 com-
mand 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 working directory,
which can be changed with 'lcd directory'; new local direc-
tories 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 mode
is "stream" mode.
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 argu-
ments 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.
newer file-name [local-file]
Get the file only if the modification time of the remote
file is more recent that the file on the current system. If
the file does not exist on the current system, the remote
file is considered newer. Otherwise, this command is iden-
tical to get.
nlist [remote-directory] [local-file]
Print a list of the files in a directory on the remote
machine. If remote-directory is left unspecified, the cur-
rent working directory is used. If interactive prompting is
on, ftp will prompt the user to verify that the last argu-
ment 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.
nmap [inpattern outpattern]
Set or unset the filename mapping mechanism. If no argu-
ments 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 speci-
fied, local filenames are mapped during mget commands and
get commands issued without a specified local target file-
name. 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', ...,
'$9' in inpattern. Use '\' to prevent this special treat-
ment of the '$' 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 name "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
replace by the original filename. Additionally, the
sequence '[seq1, seq2]' is replaced by [seq1] if seq1 is not
a null string; otherwise it is replaced by seq2. For exam-
ple, 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 trans-
lation 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 prac-
tices. 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 selec-
tively 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. Enter the command "proxy ?"
to see other ftp commands executable on the secondary con-
nection. 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 ftp protocol PASV com-
mand by the server on the secondary control connection.
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 process-
ing 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 working 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 remote-file [local-file]
Reget acts like get, except that if local-file exists and is
smaller than remote-file, local-file is presumed to be a
partially transferred copy of remote-file and the transfer
is continued from the apparent point of failure. This com-
mand is useful when transferring very large files over net-
works that are prone to dropping connections.
remotehelp [command-name]
Request help from the remote FTP server. If a command-name
is specified it is supplied to the server as well.
remotestatus [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 com-
mand/reply sequencing with the remote ftp server. Resyn-
chronization may be necessary following a violation of the
ftp protocol by the remote server.
restart marker
Restart the immediately following get or put at the indi-
cated marker. On UNIX systems, marker is usually a byte
offset into the file.
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 mes-
sage 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 commands. By default, ftp will
attempt to use a PORT command when establishing a connection
for each data transfer. The use of PORT commands can pre-
vent delays when performing multiple file transfers. If the
PORT command fails, ftp will use the default data port.
When the use of PORT commands is disabled, no attempt will
be made to use PORT commands for each data transfer. This
is useful for certain FTP implementations which do ignore
PORT commands but, incorrectly, indicate they've been
accepted.
site arg1 arg2 ...
The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote
FTP server as a SITE command.
size file-name
Return size of file-name on remote machine.
status Show the current status of ftp.
struct [struct-name]
Set the file transfer structure to struct-name. By default
"stream" structure is used.
sunique Toggle storing of files on remote machine under unique file
names. Remote ftp server must support ftp protocol STOU
command 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 file transfer type to type-name. If no type is
specified, the current type is printed. The default type is
network ASCII.
umask [newmask]
Set the default umask on the remote server to newmask. If
newmask is ommitted, the current umask 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 speci-
fied, 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.
? [command]
A synonym for help.
Command arguments which have embedded spaces may be quoted with quote
'"' marks.
ABORTING A FILE TRANSFER
To abort a file transfer, use the terminal interrupt key (usually Ctrl-
C). Sending transfers will be immediately halted. Receiving transfers
will be halted by sending a ftp protocol ABOR 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 ABOR
processing. If the remote server does not support the ABOR 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 com-
pleted any local processing and is awaiting a reply from the remote
server. A long delay in this mode may result from the ABOR 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.
1. If the file name '-' is specified, the stdin (for reading) or
stdout (for writing) is used.
2. 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(3) with the argument supplied, and reads
(writes) from the stdout (stdin). If the shell command includes
spaces, the argument must be quoted; e.g. "" ls -lt"". A particu-
larly useful example of this mechanism is: "dir more".
3. Failing the above checks, if ''globbing'' is enabled, local file
names are expanded according to the rules used in the csh(1); c.f.
the glob command. If the ftp command expects a single local file
(.e.g. put), only the first filename generated by the "globbing"
operation is used.
4. 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.
5. 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.
FILE TRANSFER PARAMETERS
The FTP specification specifies many parameters which may affect a file
transfer. The type may be one of "ascii", "image" (binary), "ebcdic",
and "local byte size" (for PDP-10's and PDP-20's mostly). Ftp supports
the ascii and image types of file transfer, plus local byte size 8 for
tenex mode transfers.
Ftp supports only the default values for the remaining file transfer
parameters: mode, form, and struct.
ENVIRONMENT
Ftp utilizes the following environment variables.
HOME For default location of a .netrc file, if one exists.
SHELL For default shell.
SEE ALSO
ftpd(8), RFC 959
HISTORY
The ftp command appeared in 4.2BSD.
BUGS
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 incor-
rect transfers of binary files to and from 4.2BSD servers using the
ascii type. Avoid this problem by using the binary image type.
Linux NetKit (0.17) August 15, 1999 Linux NetKit (0.17)
UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page: