ftp(1N) (TCP/IP) ftp(1N)
NAME
ftp - file transfer program
SYNOPSIS
ftp [ -dgintv ] [ hostname ]
DESCRIPTION
The ftp command is the user interface to the ARPANET standard File
Transfer Protocol (FTP). ftp transfers files to and from a remote
network site.
The client host with which ftp is to communicate may be specified on
the command line. If this is done, ftp immediately attempts to
establish a connection to an FTP server on that host; otherwise, ftp
enters its command interpreter and awaits instructions from the user.
When ftp is awaiting commands from the user, it displays the prompt
ftp>.
The following options may be specified at the command line, or to the
command interpreter:
-d Enable debugging.
-g Disable filename globbing.
-i Turn off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers.
-n Do not attempt auto-login upon initial connection. If auto-
login is not disabled, ftp checks the .netrc file in the user's
home directory for an entry describing an account on the remote
machine. If no entry exists, ftp will prompt for the login
name of the account on the remote machine (the default is the
login name on the local machine), and, if necessary, prompts
for a password and an account with which to login.
-t Enable packet tracing (unimplemented).
-v Show all responses from the remote server, as well as report on
data transfer statistics. This is turned on by default if ftp
is running interactively with its input coming from the user's
terminal.
The following commands can be specified to the command interpreter:
! [ command ]
Run command as a shell command on the local machine. If no
command is given, invoke an interactive shell.
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$ 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 not specified, the local file name is used,
subject to alteration by any ntrans or nmap settings. File
transfer uses the current settings for representation type,
file structure, and transfer mode.
ascii Set the representation type to network ASCII. This is the
default type.
bell Sound a bell after each file transfer command is completed.
binary
Set the representation type to image.
bye Terminate the FTP session with the remote server and exit ftp.
An EOF 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.
close Terminate the FTP session with the remote server, and return to
the command interpreter. Any defined macros are erased.
cr Toggle RETURN stripping during network ASCII type file
retrieval. Records are denoted by a RETURN/LINEFEED sequence
during network ASCII type file transfer. When cr is on (the
default), RETURN characters are stripped from this sequence to
conform with the UNIX system single LINEFEED record delimiter.
Records on non-UNIX-system remote hosts may contain single
LINEFEED characters; when an network ASCII type transfer is
made, these LINEFEED characters may be distinguished from a
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record delimiter only when cr is off.
delete remote-file
Delete the file remote-file on the remote machine.
debug
Toggle debugging mode. 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 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 is sent to the terminal.
disconnect
A synonym for close.
form [ format-name ]
Set the carriage control format subtype of the representation
type to format-name. The only valid format-name is non-print,
which corresponds to the default non-print subtype.
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 representation type, file structure, and transfer mode are
used while transferring the file.
glob Toggle filename expansion, or globbing, for mdelete, mget and
mput. If globbing is turned off, filenames are taken
literally.
Globbing for mput is done as in sh(1). For mdelete and mget,
each remote file name is expanded separately on the remote
machine, and the lists are not merged.
Expansion of a directory name is likely to be radically
different from expansion of the name of an ordinary file: the
exact result depends on the remote operating system and FTP
server, and can be previewed by doing mls remote-files -.
mget and mput are not meant to transfer entire directory
subtrees of files. You can do this by transferring a tar(1)
archive of the subtree (using a representation type of image as
set by the binary command).
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hash Toggle hash-sign (#) printing for each data block transferred.
The size of a data block is 8192 bytes.
help [ command ]
Print an informative message about the meaning of command. If
no argument is given, ftp prints a list of the known commands.
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. If remote-directory is left unspecified,
the current working directory is used. 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 RETURN characters from the terminal) terminates macro
input mode. There is a limit of 16 macros and 4096 total
characters in all defined macros. Macros remain defined until
a close command is executed.
The macro processor interprets $ and \ as special characters.
A $ followed by a number (or numbers) is replaced by the
corresponding argument on the macro invocation command line. A
$ followed by an i signals that macro processor that the
executing macro is to be looped. On the first pass $i is
replaced by the first argument on the macro invocation command
line, on the second pass it is replaced by the second argument,
and so on. A \ followed by any character is replaced by that
character. Use the \ to prevent special treatment of the $.
mdelete [ remote-files ]
Delete the remote-files on the remote machine.
mdir remote-files local-file
Like dir, except multiple remote files may be specified. If
interactive prompting is on, ftp will prompt the user to verify
that the last argument is indeed the target local file for
receiving mdir output.
mget remote-files
Expand the remote-files on the remote machine and do a get for
each file name thus produced. See glob for details on the
filename expansion. Resulting file names will then be
processed according to case, ntrans, and nmap settings. Files
are transferred into the local working directory, which can be
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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(1), except multiple remote files may be specified. If
interactive prompting is on, ftp will prompt the user to verify
that the last argument is indeed the target local file for
receiving mls output.
mode [ mode-name ]
Set the transfer mode to mode-name. The only valid mode-name
is stream, which corresponds to the default stream mode. This
implementation only supports stream, and requires that it be
specified.
mput local-files
Expand wild cards in the list of local files given as arguments
and do a put for each file in the resulting list. See glob for
details of filename expansion. Resulting file names will then
be processed according to ntrans and nmap settings.
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-system
remote host 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 filename. The
sequences $1, $2, ..., $9 are replaced by any value resulting
from the inpattern template. The sequence $0 is replaced by
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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. SPACE characters may be included in outpattern, as in
the example nmap $1 | sed "s/ *$//" > $1. Use the \ character
to prevent special treatment of the $, [, ], and ,, characters.
ntrans [ inchars [ outchars ] ]
Set or unset the filename character translation mechanism. If
no arguments are specified, the filename character translation
mechanism is unset. If arguments are specified, characters in
remote filenames are translated during mput commands and put
commands issued without a specified remote target filename, and
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-system
remote host with different file naming conventions or
practices. Characters in a filename matching a character in
inchars are replaced with the corresponding character in
outchars. If the character's position in inchars is longer
than the length of outchars, the character is deleted from the
file name.
open host [ port ]
Establish a connection to the specified host FTP server. An
optional port number may be supplied, in which case, ftp will
attempt to contact an FTP server at that port. If the auto-
login option is on (default setting), ftp will also attempt to
automatically log the user in to the FTP server.
prompt
Toggle interactive prompting. Interactive prompting occurs
during multiple file transfers to allow the user to selectively
retrieve or store files. By default, prompting is turned on.
If prompting is turned off, any mget or mput will transfer all
files, and any mdelete will delete all files.
proxy ftp-command
Execute an FTP command on a secondary control connection. This
command allows simultaneous connection to two remote FTP
servers for transferring files between the two servers. The
first proxy command should be an open, to establish the
secondary control connection. Enter the command proxy ? to
see other FTP commands executable on the secondary connection.
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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, mputd, and append transfer files from the host on the
secondary control connection to the host on the primary control
connection.
Third party file transfers depend upon support of the PASV
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
representation type, file structure, and transfer mode.
pwd Print the name of the current working directory on the remote
machine.
quit A synonym for bye.
quote arg1 arg2 ...
Send the arguments specified, verbatim, to the remote FTP
server. A single FTP reply code is expected in return. (The
remotehelp command displays a list of valid arguments.)
quote should be used only by experienced users who are familiar
with the FTP protocol.
recv remote-file [ local-file]
A synonym for get.
remotehelp [ command-name ]
Request help from the remote FTP server. If a command-name is
specified it is supplied to the server as well.
rename from to
Rename the file from on the remote machine to have the name 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.
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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. runique will not affect local files
generated from a shell command. 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 when connected
to certain FTP implementations that ignore PORT commands but
incorrectly indicate they have been accepted.
status
Show the current status of ftp.
struct [ struct-name ]
Set the file structure to struct-name. The only valid struct-
name is file, which corresponds to the default file structure.
The implementation only supports file, and requires that it be
specified.
sunique
Toggle storing of files on remote machine under unique file
names. The remote FTP server must support the STOU command for
successful completion. The remote server will report the
unique name. Default value is off.
tenex Set the representation type to that needed to talk to TENEX
machines.
trace Toggle packet tracing (unimplemented).
type [ type-name ]
Set the representation type to type-name. The valid type-names
are ascii for network ASCII, binary or image for image, and
tenex for local byte size with a byte size of 8 (used to talk
to TENEX machines). If no type is specified, the current type
is printed. The default type is network ASCII.
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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
mode is on, when a file transfer completes, statistics
regarding the efficiency of the transfer are reported. By
default, verbose mode is on if ftp's commands are coming from a
terminal, and off otherwise.
? [ command ]
A synonym for help.
Command arguments which have embedded spaces may be quoted with quote
(") marks.
If any command argument which is not indicated as being optional is
not specified, ftp will prompt for that argument.
ABORTING A FILE TRANSFER
To abort a file transfer, use the terminal interrupt key. 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,
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
Local files specified as arguments to ftp commands are processed
according to the following rules.
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1) If the file name - is specified, the standard input (for
reading) or standard output (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(3S) with the argument supplied, and reads
(writes) from the standard output (standard input) of that
shell. If the shell command includes SPACE characters, the
argument must be quoted; for example "| 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 sh(1);
see 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.
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 representation type may be one of network ASCII, EBCDIC, image,
or local byte size with a specified byte size (for PDP-10's and PDP-
20's mostly). The network ASCII and EBCDIC types have a further
subtype which specifies whether vertical format control (NEWLINE
characters, form feeds, etc.) are to be passed through (non-print),
provided in TELNET format (TELNET format controls), or provided in
ASA (FORTRAN) (carriage control (ASA)) format. ftp supports the
network ASCII (subtype non-print only) and image types, plus local
byte size with a byte size of 8 for communicating with TENEX
machines.
The file structure may be one of file (no record structure), record,
or page. ftp supports only the default value, which is file.
The transfer mode may be one of stream, block, or compressed. ftp
supports only the default value, which is stream.
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SEE ALSO
ls(1), rcp(1), tar(1), sh(1), ftpd(1M), popen(3S), netrc(4).
NOTES
Correct execution of many commands depends upon proper behavior by
the remote server.
An error in the treatment of carriage returns in the 4.2 BSD code
handling transfers with a representation type of network ASCII has
been corrected. This correction may result in incorrect transfers of
binary files to and from 4.2 BSD servers using a representation type
of network ASCII. Avoid this problem by using the image type.
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