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Manual page and help for the ftp linux command. Ftp is the standard File Transfer Protocol command line user interface for the Internet. The program allows the user to transfer files back and forth to a remote network location. Options can be specified from the command line or in the ftp client's own shell.
Man page output
man ftpFTP(1) BSD General Commands Manual FTP(1)
NAME
ftp — Internet file transfer program
SYNOPSIS
ftp [-46pinegvd] [host [port]]
pftp [-46inegvd] [host [port]]
DESCRIPTION
Ftp is the user interface to the Internet standard File Transfer Protocol. The program al‐
lows a user to transfer files to and from a remote network site.
Options may be specified at the command line, or to the command interpreter.
-4 Use only IPv4 to contact any host.
-6 Use IPv6 only.
-p Use passive mode for data transfers. Allows use of ftp in environments where a fire‐
wall prevents connections from the outside world back to the client machine. Requires
that the ftp server support the PASV command. This is the default if invoked as pftp.
-i Turns off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers.
-n Restrains ftp from attempting “auto-login” upon initial connection. If auto-login is
enabled, ftp will check the .netrc (see netrc(5)) 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 lo‐
cal 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 exe‐
cutable. Otherwise, does nothing.
-g Disables file name globbing.
-v Verbose option forces ftp to show all responses from the remote server, as well as re‐
port on data transfer statistics.
-d Enables debugging.
The client host and an optional port number with which ftp is to communicate may be speci‐
fied on the command line. If this is done, ftp will immediately attempt to establish a con‐
nection 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. 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 argu‐
ments as its arguments.
$ macro-name [args]
Execute the macro macro-name that was defined with the macdef command. Argu‐
ments are passed to the macro unglobbed.
account [passwd]
Supply a supplemental password required by a remote system for access to re‐
sources once a login has been successfully completed. If no argument is in‐
cluded, 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 un‐
specified, the local file name is used in naming the remote file after being al‐
tered 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 command 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 system to mode.
close Terminate the FTP session with the remote server, and return to the command in‐
terpreter. 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 re‐
mote 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.
qc Toggle the printing of control characters in the output of ASCII type commands.
When this is turned on, control characters are replaced with a question mark if
the output file is the standard output. This is the default when the standard
output is a tty.
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 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 cur‐
rent working directory on the remote machine is used. If no local file is spec‐
ified, 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 alteration by the current case, ntrans, and nmap settings. The cur‐
rent 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. Glob‐
bing 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. Ex‐
pansion 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: 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 [increment]
Toggle hash-sign (``#'') printing for each transferred data block, but only in
the absence of an argument. The size of a data block is set to 1024 bytes by
default, but can be changed by the argument increment, which also accepts the
suffixed multipliers 'k' and 'K' for kilobytes, 'm' and 'M' for Megabytes, and
finally 'g' and 'G' for Gigabytes. Setting a size activates hash printing un‐
conditionally.
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]
Set the inactivity timer on the remote server to seconds seconds. If seconds is
omitted, the current inactivity timer is printed.
ipany Allow the address resolver to return any address family.
ipv4 Restrict the address resolver to look only for IPv4 addresses.
ipv6 Restrict host adressing to IPv6 only.
lcd [directory]
Change the working directory on the local machine. If no directory is speci‐
fied, 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 list‐
ing includes any system-dependent information that the server chooses to in‐
clude; 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 re‐
ceiving 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 ter‐
minal) terminates macro input mode. There is a limit of 16 macros and 4096 to‐
tal characters in all defined macros. Macros remain defined until a close com‐
mand is executed. The macro processor interprets `$' and `\' as special charac‐
ters. A `$' 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 prompt‐
ing 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 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 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 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 set‐
tings.
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 identi‐
cal 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 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 nlist output. If no lo‐
cal file is specified, or if local-file is -, the output is sent to the termi‐
nal.
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 file‐
names are mapped during mput commands and put commands issued without a speci‐
fied 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 fol‐
lows 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 name "mydata.data", $1 would have the value
"mydata", and $2 would have the value "data". The outpattern determines the re‐
sulting 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
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 "my‐
file.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 com‐
mands 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 dif‐
ferent 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 num‐
ber 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 prompt‐
ing 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 com‐
mands 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 ftp
protocol PASV command 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 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 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.
If local-file does not exist ftp won't fetch the file. This command is useful
when transferring very large files over networks that are prone to dropping con‐
nections.
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 command/reply sequencing with
the remote ftp server. Resynchronization 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 indicated 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 contin‐
ues 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 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 prevent 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 omitted,
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 lo‐
cal 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 ac‐
count 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 ini‐
tial 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 com‐
pletes, 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 trans‐
fers will be immediately halted. Receiving transfers will be halted by sending a ftp proto‐
col 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 un‐
til the remote server has completed sending the requested file.
The terminal interrupt key sequence will be ignored when ftp has completed any local pro‐
cessing and is awaiting a reply from the remote server. A long delay in this mode may re‐
sult 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 re‐
mote 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 inter‐
preted 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 particularly useful example
of this mechanism is: “dir more”.
3. Failing the above checks, if ``globbing'' is enabled, local file names are expanded ac‐
cording to the rules used in the csh(1); c.f. the glob command. If the ftp command ex‐
pects a single local file (.e.g. put), only the first filename generated by the "glob‐
bing" operation is used.
4. For mget commands and get commands with unspecified local file names, the local file‐
name 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 file‐
name is the local filename, which may be altered by a ntrans or nmap setting. The re‐
sulting 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), netrc(5), 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 incorrect 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)
Help output
ftp
ftp> helpCommands may be abbreviated. Commands are: ! dir mdelete qc site $ disconnect mdir sendport size account exit mget put status append form mkdir pwd struct ascii get mls quit system bell glob mode quote sunique binary hash modtime recv tenex bye help mput reget tick case idle newer rstatus trace cd image nmap rhelp type cdup ipany nlist rename user chmod ipv4 ntrans reset umask close ipv6 open restart verbose cr lcd prompt rmdir ? delete ls passive runique debug macdef proxy send
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