ftp(1) ftp(1)
NAME
ftp - file transfer program
SYNOPSIS
ftp [-c | -C] [dgintv] [hostname]
DESCRIPTION
The ftp command is the user interface to the ARPANET standard
File Transfer Protocol (FTP). ftp allows a user to transfer
files to and from a remote network site.
Files
/usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/uxftp
language-specific message file [See LANG on environ(5).]
USAGE
Options may be specified at the command line, or to the
command interpreter.
-c Suppress the SYST message. This option is used to avoid
crashing a remote server which does not process this
message and can't deal with unknown messages. If the
first command after FTP login results in the message
remote server has closed connection, you should add the
-c option to the ftp command line and retry the request.
-C Force ftp to send the SYST message. By default, the
SYST message is not sent.
-d Enable debugging.
-g Disable file name 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 file (see below) 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.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 1
ftp(1) ftp(1)
-t Enable packet tracing.
-v Verbose on. 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. When ftp is
awaiting commands from the user the prompt ``ftp>'' is
provided to the user.
Commands
The following commands are recognized by ftp. Command
arguments which have embedded spaces may be quoted with quote
(") marks.
! [ 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.
? [ command ]
A synonym for help.
$ 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
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 2
ftp(1) ftp(1)
current settings for type, format, mode, and structure.
ascii Set the file transfer type to network ASCII. This is
the default type.
bell Arrange that a bell be sounded after each file transfer
command is completed.
binary
Set the file transfer type to support binary image
transfer.
bye Terminate the FTP session with the remote server and
exit ftp. An end of file will also terminate the
session and exit.
case Toggle remote computer file name case mapping during
mget commands. When case is on (default is off), remote
computer file names with all letters in upper case are
written in the local directory with the letters mapped
to lower case.
cd remote-directory
Change the current directory on the remote machine to
remote-directory.
cdup Change the remote machine current directory to the
parent of the current remote machine current directory.
chmod [ mode ] [ remote-file ]
Change file permissions of remote file.
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.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 3
ftp(1) ftp(1)
delete remote-file
Delete the file remote-file on the remote machine.
debug [ debug-value ]
Toggle debugging mode. If an optional debug-value is
specified it is used to set the debugging level. When
debugging is on, ftp prints each command sent to the
remote machine, preceded by the string ``-->''.
dir [ remote-directory [ local-file ] ]
Print a listing of the directory contents in the
directory, remote-directory, and, optionally, placing
the output in local-file. If interactive prompting is
on, ftp will prompt the user to verify that the last
argument is indeed the target local file for receiving
dir output. If no directory is specified, the current
directory on the remote machine is used. If no local
file is specified, or local-file is -, output comes to
the terminal.
disconnect
A synonym for close.
form format
Set the file transfer form to format. The default
format is file.
get remote-file [ local-file ]
Retrieve the remote-file and store it on the local
machine. If the local file name is not specified, it is
given the same name it has on the remote machine,
subject to 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 file name
arguments are taken literally and not expanded.
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 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-
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 4
ftp(1) ftp(1)
files -'. Note that mget and mput are not meant to
transfer entire directory subtrees of files. That can
be done by transferring a tar(1) archive of the subtree
(in binary mode).
hash Toggle hash-sign (``#'') printing for each data block
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 current 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
directory is used. If interactive prompting is on, ftp
will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is
indeed the target local file for receiving ls output.
If no local file is specified, or if local-file is -,
the output is sent to the terminal. 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.
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
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 5
ftp(1) ftp(1)
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
current directory, which can be changed with
lcd directory; new local directories can be created with
! mkdir directory.
mkdir directory-name
Make a directory on the remote machine.
mls remote-files local-file
Like nlist, except multiple remote files may be
specified, and the local-file must be specified. If
interactive prompting is on, ftp will prompt the user to
verify that the last argument is indeed the target local
file for receiving mls output.
mode [ mode-name ]
Set the file transfer mode to mode-name. The default
mode is stream mode.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 6
ftp(1) ftp(1)
modtime file-name
Show the last modification time of the file on the
remote machine.
mput local-files
Expand wild cards in the list of local files given as
arguments and do a put for each file in the resulting
list. See glob for details of filename expansion.
Resulting file names will then be processed according to
ntrans and nmap settings. The mput command does not
allow specifying remote file names.
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 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.
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 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
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 7
ftp(1) ftp(1)
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
the original filename. Additionally, the sequence
[seq1,seq4] 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 during mput commands and put commands issued
without a specified remote target filename. If
arguments are specified, characters in local filenames
are translated during mget commands and get commands
issued without a specified local target filename. This
command is useful when connecting to a non-UNIX remote
computer with different file naming conventions or
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), ftp will also
attempt to automatically log the user in to the FTP
server (see below).
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 8
ftp(1) ftp(1)
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.
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 directory on the remote
machine.
quit A synonym for bye.
quote arg1 arg2 . . .
The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the
remote FTP server.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 9
ftp(1) ftp(1)
recv remote-file [ local-file ]
A synonym for 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.
send local-file [ remote-file ]
A synonym for put.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 10
ftp(1) ftp(1)
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.
size file-name
Return size of file-name on remote machine.
status
Show the current status of ftp.
site [ command ]
Get/set site specific information from/on remote
machine.
struct [ struct-name ]
Set the file transfer structure to struct-name. By
default stream structure is used.
sunique
Toggle storing of files on remote machine under unique
file names. The remote FTP server must support the FTP
protocol command STOU for successful completion. The
remote server will report unique name. Default value is
off.
system
Show the type of operating system running on the remote
machine.
tenex Set the file transfer type to that needed to talk to
TENEX machines.
trace Toggle packet tracing.
type [ type-name ]
Set the file transfer type to type-name. If no type is
specified, the current type is printed. The default
type is network ASCII.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 11
ftp(1) ftp(1)
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.
Aborting a File Transfer
To abort a file transfer, use the terminal interrupt key
(usually Delete or Ctrl-C). Sending transfers will be
immediately halted. Receiving transfers will be halted by
sending a ftp protocol ABORT 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
ABORT processing. If the remote server does not support the
ABORT 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 ABORT 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.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 12
ftp(1) ftp(1)
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(3S) with
the argument supplied, and reads (writes) from the
stdout (stdin). If the shell command includes spaces,
the argument must be quoted. A particularly useful
example of this mechanism is: "dir . | pg".
3) Failing the above checks, if ``globbing'' is enabled,
local file names are expanded according to the rules
used in the sh(1); c.f. the glob command. If the ftp
command expects a single local file (e.g., put), only
the first filename generated by the ``globbing''
operation is used.
4) For mget commands and get commands with unspecified
local file names, the local filename is the remote
filename, which may be altered by a case, ntrans, or
nmap setting. The resulting filename may then be
altered if runique is on.
5) For mput commands and put commands with unspecified
remote file names, the remote filename is the local
filename, which may be altered by a ntrans or nmap
setting. The resulting filename may then be altered by
the remote server if sunique is on.
File Transfer Parameters
FTP specifies many parameters which may affect a file
transfer. The type may be one of ascii, image (binary),
ebcdic, and local byte size. 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.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 13
ftp(1) ftp(1)
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. The following tokens are recognized; they may be
separated 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 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 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, 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 command if it does not.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 14
ftp(1) ftp(1)
macdef name
Define a macro. This token functions like the ftp
macdef command functions. A macro is defined with the
specified name; its contents begin with the next .netrc
line and continue until a null line (consecutive new-
line characters) is encountered. If a macro named init
is defined, it is automatically executed as the last
step in the auto-login process.
Warnings
Correct execution of many commands depends upon proper
behavior by the remote server.
An error in the treatment of carriage returns in the 4.2BSD
ascii-mode transfer code has been corrected. This correction
may result in incorrect transfers of binary files to and from
4.2BSD servers using the ascii type. Avoid this problem by
using the binary file transfer type.
REFERENCES
ftpd(1M)
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 15