ftp(1) BSD General Commands Manual ftp(1)
NAME
ftp -- Internet file transfer program
SYNOPSIS
ftp [-46AadefginpRtvV] [-N netrc] [-o output] [-P port] [-q quittime]
[-s srcaddr] [-r retry] [-T dir,max[,inc]] [[user@]host [port]]
[[user@]host:[path][/]] [file:///path]
[ftp://[user[:password]@]host[:port]/path[/][;type=X]]
[http://[user[:password]@]host[:port]/path] [...]
ftp -u URL file [...]
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.
The last five arguments will fetch a file using the FTP or HTTP proto-
cols, or by direct copying, into the current directory. This is ideal
for scripts. Refer to AUTO-FETCHING FILES below for more information.
Options may be specified at the command line, or to the command inter-
preter.
-4 Forces ftp to only use IPv4 addresses.
-6 Forces ftp to only use IPv6 addresses.
-A Force active mode ftp. By default, ftp will try to use pas-
sive mode ftp and fall back to active mode if passive is not
supported by the server. This option causes ftp to always
use an active connection. It is only useful for connecting
to very old servers that do not implement passive mode prop-
erly.
-a Causes ftp to bypass normal login procedure, and use an
anonymous login instead.
-d Enables debugging.
-e Disables command line editing. This is useful for Emacs
ange-ftp mode.
-f Forces a cache reload for transfers that go through the FTP
or HTTP proxies.
-g Disables file name globbing.
-i Turns off interactive prompting during multiple file trans-
fers.
-n Restrains ftp from attempting ``auto-login'' upon initial
connection for non auto-fetch transfers. If auto-login is
enabled, ftp will check the .netrc (see below) 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 pass-
word and an account with which to login. To override the
auto-login for auto-fetch transfers, specify the username
(and optionally, password) as appropriate.
-N netrc Use netrc instead of ~/.netrc. Refer to THE .netrc FILE for
more information.
-o output When auto-fetching files, save the contents in output.
output is parsed according to the FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS
below. If output is not `-' or doesn't start with `|', then
only the first file specified will be retrieved into output;
all other files will be retrieved into the basename of their
remote name.
-p Enable passive mode operation for use behind connection fil-
tering firewalls. This option has been deprecated as ftp now
tries to use passive mode by default, falling back to active
mode if the server does not support passive connections.
-P port Sets the port number to port.
-q quittime
Quit if the connection has stalled for quittime seconds.
-r wait Retry the connection attempt if it failed, pausing for wait
seconds.
-R Restart all non-proxied auto-fetches.
-s srcaddr Uses srcaddr as the local IP address for all connections.
-t Enables packet tracing.
-T direction,maximum[,increment]
Set the maximum transfer rate for direction to maximum
bytes/second, and if specified, the increment to increment
bytes/second. Refer to rate for more information.
-u URL file [...]
Upload files on the command line to URL where URL is one of
the ftp URL types as supported by auto-fetch (with an
optional target filename for single file uploads), and file
is one or more local files to be uploaded.
-v Enable verbose and progress. This is the default if output
is to a terminal (and in the case of progress, ftp is the
foreground process). Forces ftp to show all responses from
the remote server, as well as report on data transfer statis-
tics.
-V Disable verbose and progress, overriding the default of
enabled when output is to a terminal.
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. 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 get,
mget and mput 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 remote-file
Change the permission modes of the file remote-file on the
remote system 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/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 line-
feeds; when an ascii type transfer is made, these linefeeds
may be distinguished from a record delimiter only when cr is
off.
ftp_debug [ftp_debug-value]
Toggle debugging mode. If an optional ftp_debug-value is
specified it is used to set the debugging level. When debug-
ging is on, ftp prints each command sent to the remote
machine, preceded by the string `-->'
delete remote-file
Delete the file remote-file on the remote machine.
dir [remote-path [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'.
If remote-path 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 dir output. If no local
file is specified, or if local-file is `-', the output is
sent to the terminal.
disconnect A synonym for close.
edit Toggle command line editing, and context sensitive command
and file completion. This is automatically enabled if input
is from a terminal, and disabled otherwise.
epsv4 Toggle the use of the extended EPSV and EPRT commands on IPv4
connections; first try EPSV / EPRT, and then PASV / PORT.
This is enabled by default. If an extended command fails
then this option will be temporarily disabled for the dura-
tion of the current connection, or until epsv4 is executed
again.
exit A synonym for bye.
features Display what features the remote server supports (using the
FEAT command).
fget localfile
Retrieve the files listed in localfile, which has one line
per filename.
form format
Set the file transfer form to format. The default (and only
supported) format is ``non-print''.
ftp host [port]
A synonym for open.
gate [host [port]]
Toggle gate-ftp mode, which used to connect through the TIS
FWTK and Gauntlet ftp proxies. This will not be permitted if
the gate-ftp server hasn't been set (either explicitly by the
user, or from the FTPSERVER environment variable). If host
is given, then gate-ftp mode will be enabled, and the gate-
ftp server will be set to host. If port is also given, that
will be used as the port to connect to on the gate-ftp
server.
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 structure are used while
transferring the file.
glob Toggle filename expansion for mdelete, mget, mput, and
mreget. 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, mget, and mreget,
each remote file name is expanded separately on the remote
machine and the lists are not merged. Expansion of a direc-
tory 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, mput and mreget are
not meant to transfer entire directory subtrees of files.
That can be done by transferring a tar(1) archive of the sub-
tree (in binary mode).
hash [size]
Toggle hash-sign (`#') printing for each data block trans-
ferred. The size of a data block defaults to 1024 bytes.
This can be changed by specifying size in bytes. Enabling
hash disables progress.
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 sec-
onds. If seconds is omitted, the current inactivity timer is
printed.
image A synonym for binary.
lcd [directory]
Change the working directory on the local machine. If no
directory is specified, the user's home directory is used.
less file A synonym for page.
lpage local-file
Display local-file with the program specified by the set
pager option.
lpwd Print the working directory on the local machine.
ls [remote-path [local-file]]
A synonym for dir.
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. Macro names can be a maxi-
mum of 8 characters. Macros are only applicable to the cur-
rent session they are defined within (or if defined outside a
session, to the session invoked with the next open command),
and remain defined until a close command is executed. To
invoke a macro, use the $ command (see above).
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 `$' followed by an `i' signals the macro processor
that the executing macro is to be looped. On the first pass
``$i'' is replaced by the first argument on the macro invoca-
tion 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 spe-
cial 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 ver-
ify 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 ls, 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 argu-
ment is indeed the target local file for receiving mls out-
put.
mlsd [remote-path]
Display the contents of remote-path (which should default to
the current directory if not given) in a machine-parsable
form, using MLSD. The format of display can be changed with
`remopts mlst ...'.
mlst [remote-path]
Display the details about remote-path (which should default
to the current directory if not given) in a machine-parsable
form, using MLST. The format of display can be changed with
`remopts mlst ...'.
mode mode-name
Set the file transfer mode to mode-name. The default (and
only supported) mode is ``stream''.
modtime remote-file
Show the last modification time of the file on the remote
machine, in RFC2822 format.
more file A synonym for page.
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.
mreget remote-files
As per mget, but performs a reget instead of get.
msend local-files
A synonym for mput.
newer remote-file [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 identical to
get.
nlist [remote-path [local-file]]
A synonym for ls.
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 com-
mand 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 name "mydata.data",
$1 would have the value "mydata", and $2 would have the value
"data". The outpattern determines the resulting mapped file-
name. The sequences ``$1'', ``$2'', ... ``$9'' are replaced
by any value resulting from the inpattern template. The
sequence ``$0'' is replaced by the original filename. Addi-
tionally, 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 file-
names "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, char-
acters in remote filenames are translated during mput com-
mands and put commands issued without a specified remote tar-
get 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 set
auto-login option is on (default), ftp will also attempt to
automatically log the user in to the FTP server (see below).
page file Retrieve file and display with the program specified by the
set pager option.
passive [auto]
Toggle passive mode (if no arguments are given). If auto is
given, act as if FTPMODE is set to `auto'. If passive mode
is turned on (default), ftp will send a PASV command for all
data connections instead of a PORT command. The PASV command
requests that the remote server open a port for the data con-
nection and return the address of that port. The remote
server listens on that port and the client connects to it.
When using the more traditional PORT command, the client lis-
tens on a port and sends that address to the remote server,
who connects back to it. Passive mode is useful when using
ftp through a gateway router or host that controls the direc-
tionality of traffic. (Note that though FTP servers are
required to support the PASV command by RFC1123, some do
not.)
pdir [remote-path]
Perform dir [remote-path], and display the result with the
program specified by the set pager option.
pls [remote-path]
Perform ls [remote-path], and display the result with the
program specified by the set pager option.
pmlsd [remote-path]
Perform mlsd [remote-path], and display the result with the
program specified by the set pager option.
preserve Toggle preservation of modification times on retrieved files.
progress Toggle display of transfer progress bar. The progress bar
will be disabled for a transfer that has local-file as `-' or
a command that starts with `|'. Refer to FILE NAMING
CONVENTIONS for more information. Enabling progress disables
hash.
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.
When prompting is on, the following commands are available at
a prompt:
a Answer `yes' to the current file, and automatically
answer `yes' to any remaining files for the current
command.
n Answer `no', and do not transfer the file.
p Answer `yes' to the current file, and turn off
prompt mode (as is ``prompt off'' had been given).
q Terminate the current operation.
y Answer `yes', and transfer the file.
? Display a help message.
Any other response will answer `yes' to the current file.
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 sec-
ondary control connection. Enter the command "proxy ?" to
see other FTP commands executable on the secondary connec-
tion. The following commands behave differently when pref-
aced by proxy: open will not define new macros during the
auto-login process, close will not erase existing macro defi-
nitions, get and mget transfer files from the host on the
primary control connection to the host on the secondary con-
trol 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 trans-
fers 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 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.
rate direction [maximum [increment]]
Throttle the maximum transfer rate to maximum bytes/second.
If maximum is 0, disable the throttle.
direction may be one of:
all Both directions.
get Incoming transfers.
put Outgoing transfers.
maximum can be modified on the fly by increment bytes
(default: 1024) each time a given signal is received:
SIGUSR1 Increment maximum by increment bytes.
SIGUSR2 Decrement maximum by increment bytes. The
result must be a positive number.
If maximum is not supplied, the current throttle rates are
displayed.
Note: rate is not yet implemented for ascii mode transfers.
rcvbuf size
Set the size of the socket receive buffer to size.
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 par-
tially transferred copy of remote-file and the transfer is
continued from the apparent point of failure. This command
is useful when transferring very large files over networks
that are prone to dropping connections.
remopts command [command-options]
Set options on the remote FTP server for command to
command-options (whose absence is handled on a command-spe-
cific basis). Remote FTP commands known to support options
include: `MLST' (used for MLSD and MLST).
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. Resynchro-
nization 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.
rhelp [command-name]
Request help from the remote FTP server. If a command-name
is specified it is supplied to the server as well.
rmdir directory-name
Delete a directory on the remote machine.
rstatus [remote-file]
With no arguments, show status of remote machine. If
remote-file is specified, show status of remote-file on
remote machine.
runique Toggle storing of files on the local system with unique file-
names. 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 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.
set [option value]
Set option to value. If option and value are not given, dis-
play all of the options and their values. The currently sup-
ported options are:
anonpass Defaults to $FTPANONPASS
ftp_proxy Defaults to $ftp_proxy.
http_proxy Defaults to $http_proxy.
no_proxy Defaults to $no_proxy.
pager Defaults to $PAGER.
prompt Defaults to $FTPPROMPT.
rprompt Defaults to $FTPRPROMPT.
site arg1 arg2 ...
The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote FTP
server as a SITE command.
size remote-file
Return size of remote-file on remote machine.
sndbuf size
Set the size of the socket send buffer to size.
status Show the current status of ftp.
struct struct-name
Set the file transfer structure to struct-name. The default
(and only supported) structure is ``file''.
sunique Toggle storing of files on remote machine under unique file
names. The 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.
throttle A synonym for rate.
trace Toggle packet tracing.
type [type-name]
Set the file transfer type to type-name. If no type is spec-
ified, the current type is printed. The default type is net-
work ASCII.
umask [newmask]
Set the default umask on the remote server to newmask. If
newmask is omitted, the current umask is printed.
unset option
Unset option. Refer to set for more information.
usage command
Print the usage message for command.
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 automati-
cally 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 ver-
bose is on, when a file transfer completes, statistics
regarding the efficiency of the transfer are reported. By
default, verbose is on.
xferbuf size
Set the size of the socket send and receive buffers to size.
? [command]
A synonym for help.
Command arguments which have embedded spaces may be quoted with quote `"'
marks.
Commands which toggle settings can take an explicit on or off argument to
force the setting appropriately.
Commands which take a byte count as an argument (e.g., hash, rate, and
xferbuf) support an optional suffix on the argument which changes the
interpretation of the argument. Supported suffixes are:
b Causes no modification. (Optional)
k Kilo; multiply the argument by 1024
m Mega; multiply the argument by 1048576
g Giga; multiply the argument by 1073741824
If ftp receives a SIGINFO (see the ``status'' argument of stty(1)) or
SIGQUIT signal whilst a transfer is in progress, the current transfer
rate statistics will be written to the standard error output, in the same
format as the standard completion message.
AUTO-FETCHING FILES
In addition to standard commands, this version of ftp supports an auto-
fetch feature. To enable auto-fetch, simply pass the list of host-
names/files on the command line.
The following formats are valid syntax for an auto-fetch element:
[user@]host:[path][/]
``Classic'' FTP format.
If path contains a glob character and globbing is enabled, (see
glob), then the equivalent of `mget path' is performed.
If the directory component of path contains no globbing characters,
it is stored locally with the name basename (see basename(1)) of
path, in the current directory. Otherwise, the full remote name is
used as the local name, relative to the local root directory.
ftp://[user[:password]@]host[:port]/path[/][;type=X]
An FTP URL, retrieved using the FTP protocol if set ftp_proxy isn't
defined. Otherwise, transfer the URL using HTTP via the proxy
defined in set ftp_proxy. If set ftp_proxy isn't defined and user
is given, login as user. In this case, use password if supplied,
otherwise prompt the user for one.
If a suffix of `;type=A' or `;type=I' is supplied, then the trans-
fer type will take place as ascii or binary (respectively). The
default transfer type is binary.
In order to be compliant with RFC3986, ftp interprets the path part
of an ``ftp://'' auto-fetch URL as follows:
o The `/' immediately after the host[:port] is interpreted as a
separator before the path, and not as part of the path itself.
o The path is interpreted as a `/'-separated list of name compo-
nents. For all but the last such component, ftp performs the
equivalent of a cd command. For the last path component, ftp
performs the equivalent of a get command.
o Empty name components, which result from `//' within the path,
or from an extra `/' at the beginning of the path, will cause
the equivalent of a cd command without a directory name. This
is unlikely to be useful.
o Any `%XX' codes (per RFC3986) within the path components are
decoded, with XX representing a character code in hexadecimal.
This decoding takes place after the path has been split into
components, but before each component is used in the equivalent
of a cd or get command. Some often-used codes are `%2F' (which
represents `/') and `%7E' (which represents `~').
The above interpretation has the following consequences:
o The path is interpreted relative to the default login directory
of the specified user or of the `anonymous' user. If the /
directory is required, use a leading path of ``%2F''. If a
user's home directory is required (and the remote server sup-
ports the syntax), use a leading path of ``%7Euser/''. For
example, to retrieve /etc/motd from `localhost' as the user
`myname' with the password `mypass', use
``ftp://myname:mypass@localhost/%2fetc/motd''
o The exact cd and get commands can be controlled by careful
choice of where to use `/' and where to use `%2F' (or `%2f').
For example, the following URLs correspond to the equivalents
of the indicated commands:
ftp://host/dir1/dir2/file ``cd dir1'', ``cd dir2'',
``get file''.
ftp://host/%2Fdir1/dir2/file ``cd /dir1'', ``cd dir2'',
``get file''.
ftp://host/dir1%2Fdir2/file ``cd dir1/dir2'', ``get
file''.
ftp://host/%2Fdir1%2Fdir2/file ``cd /dir1/dir2'', ``get
file''.
ftp://host/dir1%2Fdir2%2Ffile ``get dir1/dir2/file''.
ftp://host/%2Fdir1%2Fdir2%2Ffile ``get /dir1/dir2/file''.
o You must have appropriate access permission for each of the
intermediate directories that is used in the equivalent of a cd
command.
http://[user[:password]@]host[:port]/path
An HTTP URL, retrieved using the HTTP protocol. If set http_proxy
is defined, it is used as a URL to an HTTP proxy server. If HTTP
authorization is required to retrieve path, and `user' (and option-
ally `password') is in the URL, use them for the first attempt to
authenticate.
file:///path
A local URL, copied from /path on the local host.
about:topic
Display information regarding topic; no file is retrieved for this
auto-fetched element. Supported values include:
about:ftp Information about ftp.
about:version The version of ftp. Useful to provide when report-
ing problems.
Unless noted otherwise above, and -o output is not given, the file is
stored in the current directory as the basename(1) of path. Note that if
a HTTP redirect is received, the fetch is retried using the new target
URL supplied by the server, with a corresponding new path. Using an
explicit -o output is recommended, to avoid writing to unexpected file
names.
If a classic format or an FTP URL format has a trailing `/' or an empty
path component, then ftp will connect to the site and cd to the directory
given as the path, and leave the user in interactive mode ready for fur-
ther input. This will not work if set ftp_proxy is being used.
Direct HTTP transfers use HTTP 1.1. Proxied FTP and HTTP transfers use
HTTP 1.0.
If -R is given, all auto-fetches that don't go via the FTP or HTTP prox-
ies will be restarted. For FTP, this is implemented by using reget
instead of get. For HTTP, this is implemented by using the `Range:
bytes=' HTTP/1.1 directive.
If WWW or proxy WWW authentication is required, you will be prompted to
enter a username and password to authenticate with.
When specifying IPv6 numeric addresses in a URL, you need to surround the
address in square brackets. E.g.: ``ftp://[::1]:21/''. This is because
colons are used in IPv6 numeric address as well as being the separator
for the port number.
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 an 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, the
prompt will not appear until the remote server has completed sending the
requested file.
If the terminal interrupt key sequence is used whilst ftp is awaiting a
reply from the remote server for the ABOR processing, then the connection
will be closed. This is different from the traditional behaviour (which
ignores the terminal interrupt during this phase), but is considered more
useful.
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 argu-
ment 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 according to the rules used in the csh(1); see
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.
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, unless
overridden with the -N netrc option, or specified in the NETRC environ-
ment variable. The following tokens are recognized; they may be sepa-
rated by spaces, tabs, or new-lines:
machine name
Identify a remote machine name. The auto-login process
searches the .netrc file for a machine token that matches the
remote machine specified on the ftp command line or as an open
command argument. Once a match is made, the subsequent .netrc
tokens are processed, stopping when the end of file is reached
or another machine or a default token is encountered.
default This is the same as machine name except that default matches
any name. There can be only one default token, and it must be
after all machine tokens. This is normally used as:
default login anonymous password user@site
thereby giving the user an automatic anonymous FTP login to
machines not specified in .netrc. This can be overridden by
using the -n flag to disable auto-login.
login name
Identify a user on the remote machine. If this token is
present, the auto-login process will initiate a login using the
specified name.
password string
Supply a password. If this token is present, the auto-login
process will supply the specified string if the remote server
requires a password as part of the login process. Note that if
this token is present in the .netrc file for any user other
than anonymous, ftp will abort the auto-login process if the
.netrc is readable by anyone besides the user.
account string
Supply an additional account password. If this token is
present, the auto-login process will supply the specified
string if the remote server requires an additional account
password, or the auto-login process will initiate an ACCT com-
mand if it does not.
macdef name
Define a macro. This token functions like the ftp macdef com-
mand functions. A macro is defined with the specified name;
its contents begin with the next .netrc line and continue until
a blank line (consecutive new-line characters) is encountered.
Like the other tokens in the .netrc file, a macdef is applica-
ble only to the machine definition preceding it. A macdef
entry cannot be utilized by multiple machine definitions;
rather, it must be defined following each machine it is
intended to be used with. If a macro named init is defined, it
is automatically executed as the last step in the auto-login
process. For example,
default
macdef init
epsv4 off
followed by a blank line.
COMMAND LINE EDITING
ftp supports interactive command line editing, via the editline(3)
library. It is enabled with the edit command, and is enabled by default
if input is from a tty. Previous lines can be recalled and edited with
the arrow keys, and other GNU Emacs-style editing keys may be used as
well.
The editline(3) library is configured with a .editrc file - refer to
editrc(5) for more information.
An extra key binding is available to ftp to provide context sensitive
command and filename completion (including remote file completion). To
use this, bind a key to the editline(3) command ftp-complete. By
default, this is bound to the TAB key.
COMMAND LINE PROMPT
By default, ftp displays a command line prompt of ``ftp> '' to the user.
This can be changed with the set prompt command.
A prompt can be displayed on the right side of the screen (after the com-
mand input) with the set rprompt command.
The following formatting sequences are replaced by the given information:
%/ The current remote working directory.
%c[[0]n],%.[[0]n]
The trailing component of the current remote working direc-
tory, or n trailing components if a digit n is given. If n
begins with `0', the number of skipped components precede the
trailing component(s) in the format ``/<number>trailing'' (for
`%c') or ``...trailing'' (for `%.').
%M The remote host name.
%m The remote host name, up to the first `.'.
%n The remote user name.
%% A single `%'.
ENVIRONMENT
ftp uses the following environment variables.
FTPANONPASS Password to send in an anonymous FTP transfer. Defaults
to ```whoami`@''.
FTPMODE Overrides the default operation mode. Support values are:
active active mode FTP only
auto automatic determination of passive or active
(this is the default)
gate gate-ftp mode
passive passive mode FTP only
FTPPROMPT Command-line prompt to use. Defaults to ``ftp> ''. Refer
to COMMAND LINE PROMPT for more information.
FTPRPROMPT Command-line right side prompt to use. Defaults to ``''.
Refer to COMMAND LINE PROMPT for more information.
FTPSERVER Host to use as gate-ftp server when gate is enabled.
FTPSERVERPORT Port to use when connecting to gate-ftp server when gate
is enabled. Default is port returned by a getservbyname()
lookup of ``ftpgate/tcp''.
FTPUSERAGENT The value to send for the HTTP User-Agent header.
HOME For default location of a .netrc file, if one exists.
NETRC An alternate location of the .netrc file.
PAGER Used by various commands to display files. Defaults to
more(1) if empty or not set.
SHELL For default shell.
ftp_proxy URL of FTP proxy to use when making FTP URL requests (if
not defined, use the standard FTP protocol).
See http_proxy for further notes about proxy use.
http_proxy URL of HTTP proxy to use when making HTTP URL requests.
If proxy authentication is required and there is a user-
name and password in this URL, they will automatically be
used in the first attempt to authenticate to the proxy.
If ``unsafe'' URL characters are required in the username
or password (for example `@' or `/'), encode them with
RFC3986 `%XX' encoding.
Note that the use of a username and password in ftp_proxy
and http_proxy may be incompatible with other programs
that use it (such as lynx(1)).
NOTE: this is not used for interactive sessions, only for
command-line fetches.
no_proxy A space or comma separated list of hosts (or domains) for
which proxying is not to be used. Each entry may have an
optional trailing ":port", which restricts the matching to
connections to that port.
EXTENDED PASSIVE MODE AND FIREWALLS
Some firewall configurations do not allow ftp to use extended passive
mode. If you find that even a simple ls appears to hang after printing a
message such as this:
229 Entering Extended Passive Mode (|||58551|)
then you will need to disable extended passive mode with epsv4 off. See
the above section The .netrc File for an example of how to make this
automatic.
SEE ALSO
getservbyname(3), editrc(5), services(5), ftpd(8)
STANDARDS
ftp attempts to be compliant with:
RFC0959 File Transfer Protocol
RFC1123 Requirements for Internet Hosts - Application and Support
RFC1635 How to Use Anonymous FTP
RFC2389 Feature negotiation mechanism for the File Transfer
Protocol
RFC2428 FTP Extensions for IPv6 and NATs
RFC2616 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1
RFC2822 Internet Message Format
RFC3659 Extensions to FTP
RFC3986 Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)
HISTORY
The ftp command appeared in 4.2BSD.
Various features such as command line editing, context sensitive command
and file completion, dynamic progress bar, automatic fetching of files
and URLs, modification time preservation, transfer rate throttling, con-
figurable command line prompt, and other enhancements over the standard
BSD ftp were implemented in NetBSD 1.3 and later releases by Luke Mewburn
<lukem@NetBSD.org>.
IPv6 support was added by the WIDE/KAME project (but may not be present
in all non-NetBSD versions of this program, depending if the operating
system supports IPv6 in a similar manner to KAME).
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.
ftp assumes that all IPv4 mapped addresses (IPv6 addresses with a form
like ::ffff:10.1.1.1) indicate IPv4 destinations which can be handled by
AF_INET sockets. However, in certain IPv6 network configurations, this
assumption is not true. In such an environment, IPv4 mapped addresses
must be passed to AF_INET6 sockets directly. For example, if your site
uses a SIIT translator for IPv6-to-IPv4 translation, ftp is unable to
support your configuration.
BSD July 18, 2007 BSD
Mac OS X 10.6 - Generated Thu Sep 17 20:07:40 CDT 2009