ftp(TC)
ftp --
Internet file transfer program
Syntax
ftp [ -Adginptv ] [ host ]
Description
ftp is the user interface to the
Internet standard File Transfer Protocol. 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 interpreter.
-A-
suppress automatic AUTH command on login for servers that
do not support this feature (and the connection).
-d-
Enable debugging.
-g-
Disable filename globbing.
-i-
Turn off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers.
-n-
Restrain ftp from attempting
auto-login upon initial connection. 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
password and an account with which to login.
-p-
Enable passive mode ftp access.
-t-
Enables packet tracing. This option is not currently implemented.
-v-
Verbose; forces ftp to show all responses
from the remote server, as well as report on data transfer
statistics. Normally, this is on by default, unless the
standard input is not a terminal.
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.
ftp displays the prompt ftp>
when it
is awaiting commands from the user.
Client commands
There are separate FTP client and server command sets,
as requests from the client invoke commands on the server.
However, individual client commands may not correspond directly
to server commands; the names may be different or single client
commands may invoke multiple server commands.
Under some circumstances, server commands can be invoked
directly from the client; see the ftp quote
and site commands below.
NOTE:
While the minimum set of FTP server commands is
defined by RFCs 959 (STD 9) and 1123,
there is considerable variation in server implementations,
particularly with regard to supported commands.
See the
ftpd(ADMN)
manual page concerning the SCO OpenServer implementation.
The following commands are recognized by the ftp
client:
! [ 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 filename 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
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 filename case mapping
during mget commands. When case is on
(default is off), remote computer filenames with all
letters in uppercase are written in the local directory
with the letters mapped to lowercase.
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 file permissions of remote file.
clear-
Do not create encrypted checksums to include
in the data packets.
close-
Terminate the FTP session with the remote server, and
return to the command interpreter. Any defined macros are erased.
cr-
Toggle carriage return stripping during ASCII
type file retrieval. Records are denoted by a carriage
return/linefeed sequence during ASCII type file
transfer. When cr is on (the default), carriage
returns are stripped from this sequence to conform with the
UNIX single linefeed record delimiter. Records on
non-UNIX remote systems may contain single linefeeds; when
an ASCII type transfer is made, these linefeeds
may be distinguished from a record delimiter only when
cr is off.
delete remote-file-
Delete the file remote-file on the remote machine.
debug [ debug-value ]-
Toggle debugging mode. If an optional debug-value
is specified, it is used to set the debugging level.
When debugging is on, ftp
prints each command sent to the remote machine, preceded
by the string ``-->''.
dir [ remote-directory ] [ local-file ]-
Print a listing of the directory contents in the directory,
remote-directory, optionally placing the
output in local-file. If interactive prompting
is on, ftp will prompt the user to verify that
the last argument is the target 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-
Same as 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 filename 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, and mput. If globbing is turned
off with glob, the filename arguments are taken
literally and not expanded. Globbing for mput is
done as in
sh(C).
For mdelete and mget, each remote
filename is expanded separately on the remote machine and
the lists are not merged. Expansion of a directory name is
likely to be different from expansion of the name of an
ordinary file: the exact result depends on the foreign
operating system and ftp server, and can be previewed by
doing mls remote-files -.
Note that mget and mput are not meant to transfer
entire directory subtrees of files. That can be done by
transferring a
tar(C)
archive of the subtree (in binary mode).
hash-
Toggle hash-sign (#) printing for each data block
transferred. The size of a data block is BUFSIZ bytes.
BUFSIZ is defined in stdio.h.
help [ command ]-
Print an informative message about the meaning of
command. If no argument is given, ftp
prints a list of the known commands.
idle-
Get/set idle timer on the remote machine.
image-
Same as binary.
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 an abbreviated listing of the contents of a directory
on the remote machine. The listing includes any
system-dependent information that the server chooses to
include; for example, most UNIX systems will produce
output from the command ls -l. (See also
nlist.) If remote-directory is left
unspecified, the current working directory is used. If
interactive prompting is on, ftp will prompt the
user to verify that the last argument is the target
local file for receiving ls output. If no local
file is specified, or if local-file is
-, the output is sent to the terminal.
Additional options may be specified by quoting the
arguments (for example, ls "-rt
dir", will cause a time sorted listing
of directory dir to be displayed if the remote
operating system is UNIX-type).
macdef macro-name-
Define a macro. Subsequent lines are stored as the macro
macro-name; a null line (consecutive newline
characters in a file or carriage returns from the terminal)
terminates macro input mode. There is a limit of 16 macros
and 4096 total characters in all defined macros. Macros
remain defined until a close command is
executed. The macro processor interprets ``$'' and
``\'' as special characters. A ``$'' followed
by a number (or numbers) is replaced by the corresponding
argument on the macro invocation command line. A
``$'' followed by an ``i'' signals to the macro
processor that the executing macro is to be looped. On the
first pass, ``$i'' is replaced by the first argument
on the macro invocation command line, on the second pass it
is replaced by the second argument, and so on. A
``\'' followed by any character is replaced by that
character. Use the ``\'' to prevent special
treatment of the ``$''.
mdelete [ remote-files ]-
Delete the remote-files on the remote machine.
mdir remote-files local-file-
Like dir, except multiple remote files may be specified.
If interactive prompting is on, ftp
will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is 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 filename thus produced.
See glob for details on the filename expansion.
Resulting filenames 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 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 wildcards 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 filenames will then be processed
according to ntrans and nmap settings.
The mput command does not allow remote
filenames to be specified.
newer remote-file [ local-file ]-
Get file if remote file is newer than local file.
nlist [ remote-directory ] [ local-file ]-
Print a list of the files of a directory on the remote
machine. If remote-directory is left
unspecified, the current 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
local file is specified, or if local-file is
-, the output is sent to the terminal.
Additional options may be specified by quoting the arguments
(for example, nlist "-rt dir",
will cause a time sorted listing of directory dir
to be displayed if the remote operating system is UNIX).
nmap [ inpattern outpattern ]-
Set or unset the filename mapping mechanism. If no
arguments are specified, the filename mapping mechanism is
unset. If arguments are specified, remote filenames are
mapped during mput commands and put
commands issued without a specified remote target
filename. If arguments are specified, local filenames are
mapped during mget commands and get
commands issued without a specified local target filename.
This command is useful when connecting to a non-UNIX
remote computer with different filenaming 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 filename
mydata.data, $1 would have the value
``mydata'', and $2 would have the value
``data''. The outpattern determines the
resulting mapped filename. The sequences $1, $2, ..., $9
are replaced by any value resulting from the
inpattern template. The sequence ``$0'' is
replaced by the original filename. Additionally, the
sequence [seq1,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 myfile.myfile for the input
filename .myfile. Spaces may be included in
outpattern, as in the example:
nmap $1 |sed "s/ *$//" > $1 .
Use the ``\'' character to prevent special treatment
of the ``$'', ``['', ``]'', and
``,'' characters.
ntrans [ inchars [ outchars ] ]-
Set or unset the filename character translation mechanism.
If no arguments are specified, the filename character
translation mechanism is unset. If arguments are
specified, characters in remote filenames are translated
for mput commands and put commands that are
issued without a specified remote target filename.
If arguments are specified, characters in local filenames are
translated for mget commands and get
commands that are issued without a specified local target filename.
This command is useful when connecting to a non-UNIX
remote computer with different filenaming 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
filename.
open host [ port ]-
Establish a connection to the specified host
FTP server. An optional port number may be
supplied, in which case, ftp will attempt to
contact an FTP server at that port. If the
auto-login option is on (default), ftp
will also attempt to automatically log the user in to the
FTP server (see below).
prompt-
Toggle interactive prompting. Interactive prompting occurs
during multiple file transfers to allow the user to
selectively retrieve or store files. If prompting is
turned off (default is on), any mget or
mput will transfer all files, and any
mdelete will delete all files.
protect clear-
Same as clear.
protect safe-
Encrypt a checksum of the data in each packet
using a session key shared between the
ftp and ftpd
processes, and include this checksum in the packet.
This protects the transferred data from
undetected corruption or modification, but
it does not prevent eavesdropping
(the data is not encrypted, only the checksum).
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 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-
Same as bye.
quote arg1 arg2 ...-
The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote FTP
server, which interprets them as server commands.
To list the server commands supported on the remote FTP
server, enter quote help (or rhelp);
enter quote help command for the syntax of
individual remote commands. See also the site
command below.
recv remote-file [ local-file ]-
Same as get.
reget-
Retrieve a file restarting at the end of the local-file.
restart-
Restart the transfer of a file from a particular byte-count.
rhelp [ command-name ]-
Request help from the remote FTP server. If a
command-name is specified, it is supplied to the
server as well.
rstatus [ file-name ]-
With no arguments, show status of remote-machine. If file-name
is specified, show status of file-name on remote machine.
rename [ from ] [ to ]-
Rename the file from on the remote machine, to
the file to.
reset-
Clear reply queue. This command re-synchronizes
command/reply sequencing with the remote ftp
server. Resynchronization may be necessary following a
violation of the ftp protocol by the remote
server.
rmdir directory-name-
Delete a directory on the remote machine.
runique-
Toggle storing of files on the local system with unique filenames.
If a file already exists with a name equal to the target
local filename for a get or mget
command, a .1 is appended to the name.
If the resulting name matches another existing file,
a .2 is appended to the original name.
If this process continues up to .99, an error
message is printed, and the transfer does not take place.
The generated unique filename will be reported.
Note that runique
will not affect local files generated from a shell command
(see below). The default value is off.
safe-
Same as protect safe.
send local-file [ remote-file ]-
Same as 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 were accepted.
site [ command ]-
Perform supported non-standard or UNIX-specific commands on
the remote FTP server. site commands are
a restricted subset of the server commands available using
the quote command.
For example (using an SCO OpenServer FTP server):
site chmod 775 filename
Enter site help for a listing of site commands
recognized by the remote FTP server;
enter site help command for the syntax of
individual remote commands.
For a description of site commands recognized by
the SCO OpenServer FTP server, see the
ftpd(ADMN)
manual page.
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 filenames.
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. This option is not currently implemented.
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 [ mask ]-
Set user file-creation mode mask on the remote site.
If mask is omitted, the current value of the mask is printed.
user user-name [ password ] [ account ]-
Identify yourself to the remote FTP server. If
the password is not specified and the server requires it,
ftp will prompt the user for it (after disabling
local echo). If an account field is not specified, and the
FTP server requires it, the user will be prompted
for it. If an account field is specified, an account
command will be relayed to the remote server after the
login sequence is completed if the remote server did not
require it for logging in. Unless ftp is invoked
with auto-login disabled, this process is done
automatically on initial connection to the FTP
server.
verbose-
Toggle verbose mode. In verbose mode, all responses from
the FTP server are displayed to the user. In addition,
if verbose is on, when a file transfer completes, statistics
regarding the efficiency of the transfer are reported. By default,
verbose is on.
? [ command ]-
Same as 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 <Del>). 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 completed 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.
-
If the filename ``-'' is specified, the
stdin (for reading) or stdout
(for writing) is used.
-
If the first character of the filename is ``|'', the
remainder of the argument is interpreted as a shell command.
ftp
then forks a shell, using
popen(S)
with the argument supplied, and reads (writes) from the stdout
(stdin). If the shell command includes spaces, the argument
must be quoted; for example, "| ls -lt". A particularly
useful example of this mechanism is: dir | more.
-
Failing the above checks, if ``globbing'' is enabled,
local filenames are expanded
according to the rules used in
sh(C)
(compare with the glob command).
If the ftp
command expects a single local file (for example, put),
only the first filename generated by the ``globbing'' operation is used.
-
For mget commands and get
commands with unspecified local filenames, the local filename is
the remote filename, which may be altered by a
case, ntrans, or nmap setting.
The resulting filename may then be altered if
runique is on.
-
For mput commands and put
commands with unspecified remote filenames, 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
and PDP-20 machines 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, and can contain tokens for remote machine name,
user login, user password, account password, and macro definition.
Authenticated ftp using Kerberos
ftp allows an authenticated user to transfer files between
authenticated hosts (the host where ftp is
invoked and the host where the
ftpd(ADMN)
service daemon is running).
Authentication is provided by the SCO Security server,
which must have all the relevant principals
(hosts and users) listed in its Registry.
Authentication is negotiated when ftp is invoked
without the need for user input.
If authentication succeeds and the user is authorized,
the following message is displayed:
231 User 'user@realm' is authorized as remoteuser
Entering the status command at the
ftp>
prompt returns the type
of authentication in use.
The only type of authentication currently
available is KERBEROS_V5.
To connect to the remote host with authenticated ftp
without being asked for a password,
the user invoking ftp must have network credentials,
and the user's principal name must appear in the
$HOME/.k5login file on the host
where ftpd is running
(this file must be writable
only by the user or by root, and it must be readable by
root in the filesystem where it resides).
Before using authenticated ftp,
users must first obtain network credentials using
kinit(TC),
or by doing an authenticated login.
Limitations
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 UNIX 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.
Authentication is based on Version 5 of the
Kerberos Network Authentication Service protocol.
Only this version of the protocol is supported.
Data encryption is not supported.
Files
$HOME/.k5login-
equivalent users for authenticated ftp
$HOME/.netrc-
auto-login initialization information
/krb5/v5srvtab-
local default service key table
See also
ftpd(ADMN),
k5login(SFF),
kinit(TC)
Standards conformance
ftp is not part of any currently supported standard.
It is an extension of AT&T UNIX System V provided by
The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
ftp is conformant with:
RFC 959 (STD 9), RFC 1123
© 2003 Caldera International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003