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.\" @(#)ftp.1 6.18 (Berkeley) 7/30/91
is the user interface to the
standard File Transfer Protocol.
The program allows a user to transfer files to and from a
Options may be specified at the command line, or to the
to show all responses from the remote server, as well
as report on data transfer statistics.
from attempting \*(Lqauto-login\*(Rq upon initial connection.
If auto-login is enabled,
(see below) file in the user's home directory for an entry describing
an account on the remote machine.
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.
Turns off interactive prompting during
Disables file name globbing.
The client host with which
is to communicate may be specified on the command line.
will immediately attempt to establish a connection to an
server on that host; otherwise,
will enter its command interpreter and await instructions
is awaiting commands from the user the prompt
The following commands are recognized
.It Ic \&! Op Ar command Op Ar 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.
.It Ic \&$ Ar macro-name Op Ar args
that was defined with the
Arguments are passed to the macro unglobbed.
.It Ic account Op Ar 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.
.It Ic append Ar local-file Op Ar remote-file
Append a local file to a file on the remote machine.
is left unspecified, the local file name is used in naming the
remote file after being altered by any
File transfer uses the current settings for
This is the default type.
Arrange that a bell be sounded after each file transfer
to support binary image transfer.
session with the remote server
An end of file will also terminate the session and exit.
Toggle remote computer file name case mapping during
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
.It Ic \&cd Ar remote-directory
Change the working directory on the remote machine
Change the remote machine working directory to the parent of the
current remote machine working directory.
.It Ic chmod Ar mode file-name
Change the permission modes of the file
session with the remote server, and
return to the command interpreter.
Any defined macros are erased.
Toggle carriage return stripping during
ascii type file retrieval.
Records are denoted by a carriage return/linefeed sequence
during ascii type file transfer.
is on (the default), carriage returns are stripped from this
sequence to conform with the
remote systems may contain single linefeeds;
when an ascii type transfer is made, these linefeeds may be
distinguished from a record delimiter only when
.It Ic delete Ar remote-file
.It Ic debug Op Ar debug-value
is specified it is used to set the debugging level.
prints each command sent to the remote machine, preceded
Print a listing of the directory contents in the
and, optionally, placing the output in
If interactive prompting is on,
will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the
target local file for receiving
If no directory is specified, the current working
directory on the remote machine is used.
output comes to the terminal.
The default format is \*(Lqfile\*(Rq.
.It Ic get Ar remote-file Op Ar local-file
and store it on the local machine.
file name is not specified, it is given the same
name it has on the remote machine, subject to
alteration by the current
are used while transferring the file.
Toggle filename expansion for
If globbing is turned off with
are taken literally and not expanded.
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
are not meant to transfer
entire directory subtrees of files.
archive of the subtree (in binary mode).
Toggle hash-sign (``#'') printing for each data block
The size of a data block is 1024 bytes.
.It Ic help Op Ar command
Print an informative message about the meaning of
prints a list of the known commands.
.It Ic idle Op Ar seconds
Set the inactivity timer on the remote server to
is ommitted, the current inactivity timer is printed.
.It Ic lcd Op Ar directory
Change the working directory on the local machine.
is specified, the user's home directory is used.
Print a 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
is left unspecified, the current working directory is used.
If interactive prompting is on,
will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the
target local file for receiving
If no local file is specified, or if
the output is sent to the terminal.
.It Ic macdefNs Ar macro-name
Subsequent lines are stored as the macro
a null line (consecutive newline characters
carriage returns from the terminal) terminates macro input mode.
There is a limit of 16 macros and 4096 total characters in all
Macros remain defined until a
The macro processor interprets `$' and `\e' as special characters.
A `$' 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 `\e' followed by any character is replaced by that character.
Use the `\e' to prevent special treatment of the `$'.
.It Ic mdelete Op Ar remote-files
.It Ic mdir Ar remote-files local-file
except multiple remote files may be specified.
If interactive prompting is on,
will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the
target local file for receiving
.It Ic mget Ar remote-files
for each file name thus produced.
for details on the filename expansion.
Resulting file names will then be processed according to
Files are transferred into the local working directory,
which can be changed with
new local directories can be created with
.Ql "\&! mkdir directory" .
.It Ic mkdir Ar directory-name
Make a directory on the remote machine.
.It Ic mls Ar remote-files local-file
except multiple remote files may be specified,
If interactive prompting is on,
will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the
target local file for receiving
.It Ic mode Op Ar mode-name
The default mode is \*(Lqstream\*(Rq mode.
.It Ic modtime Ar file-name
Show the last modification time of the file on the remote machine.
.It Ic mput Ar local-files
Expand wild cards in the list of local files given as arguments
for each file in the resulting list.
for details of filename expansion.
Resulting file names will then be processed according to
.It Ic newer Ar file-name
Get the file only if the modification time of the remote file is more
recent that the file on the current system.
exist on the current system, the remote file is considered
Otherwise, this command is identical to
Print a list of the files in a
directory on the remote machine.
is left unspecified, the current working directory is used.
If interactive prompting is on,
will prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the
target local file for receiving
If no local file is specified, or if
the output is sent to the terminal.
.It Ic nmap Op Ar 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
commands issued without a specified remote target filename.
If arguments are specified, local filenames are mapped during
commands issued without a specified local target filename.
This command is useful when connecting to a
with different file naming conventions or practices.
The mapping follows the pattern set by
is a template for incoming filenames (which may have already been
processed according to the
Variable templating is accomplished by including the
sequences `$1', `$2', ..., `$9' in
Use `\\' to prevent this special treatment of the `$' character.
All other characters are treated literally, and are used to determine the
$1.$2 and the remote file name "mydata.data", $1 would have the value
"mydata", and $2 would have the value "data".
determines the resulting mapped filename.
The sequences `$1', `$2', ...., `$9' are replaced by any value resulting
The sequence `$0' is replace by the original filename.
Additionally, the sequence
is not a null string; otherwise it is replaced by
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
nmap $1.$2.$3 [$1,$2].[$2,file]
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
as in the example: `nmap $1 sed "s/ *$//" > $1' .
Use the `\e' character to prevent special treatment
of the `$','[','[', and `,' characters.
.It Ic ntrans Op Ar inchars Op Ar 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
commands issued without a specified remote target filename.
If arguments are specified, characters in
local filenames are translated during
commands issued without a specified local target filename.
This command is useful when connecting to a
with different file naming conventions or practices.
Characters in a filename matching a character in
are replaced with the corresponding character in
If the character's position in
is longer than the length of
the character is deleted from the file name.
.It Ic open Ar host Op Ar port
Establish a connection to the specified
An optional port number may be supplied,
will attempt to contact an
will also attempt to automatically log the user in to
Toggle 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
will transfer all files, and any
.It Ic proxy Ar 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.
to establish the secondary control connection.
Enter the command "proxy ?" to see other ftp commands executable on the
The following commands behave differently when prefaced by
will not define new macros during the auto-login process,
will not erase existing macro definitions,
transfer files from the host on the primary control connection
to the host on the secondary control connection, and
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
command by the server on the secondary control connection.
.It Ic put Ar local-file Op Ar remote-file
Store a local file on the remote machine.
is left unspecified, the local file name is used
after processing according to any
in naming the remote file.
Print the name of the current working directory on the remote
.It Ic quote Ar arg1 arg2 ...
The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote
.It Ic recv Ar remote-file Op Ar local-file
.It Ic reget Ar remote-file Op Ar local-file
Reget acts like get, except that if
a partially transferred copy of
is continued from the apparent point of failure.
is useful when transferring very large files over networks that
are prone to dropping connections.
.It Ic remotehelp Op Ar command-name
Request help from the remote
is specified it is supplied to the server as well.
.It Ic remotestatus Op Ar file-name
With no arguments, show status of remote machine.
is specified, show status of
on the remote machine, to the file
This command re-synchronizes command/reply sequencing with the remote
Resynchronization may be necessary following a violation of the ftp protocol
Restart the immediately following
systems, marker is usually a byte
.It Ic rmdir Ar directory-name
Delete a directory on the remote machine.
Toggle storing of files on the local system with unique filenames.
If a file already exists with a name equal to the target
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.
will not affect local files generated from a shell command
The default value is off.
.It Ic send Ar local-file Op Ar remote-file
command when establishing
a connection for each data transfer.
commands can prevent delays
when performing multiple file transfers.
will use the default data port.
commands is disabled, no attempt will be made to use
commands for each data transfer.
implementations which do ignore
commands but, incorrectly, indicate they've been accepted.
.It Ic site Ar arg1 arg2 ...
The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote
Show the current status of
.It Ic struct Op Ar struct-name
By default \*(Lqstream\*(Rq structure is used.
Toggle storing of files on remote machine under unique file names.
Remote ftp server must support ftp protocol
The remote server will report unique name.
Show the type of operating system running on the remote machine.
Set the file transfer type to that needed to
.It Ic type Op Ar type-name
If no type is specified, the current type
The default type is network
.It Ic umask Op Ar newmask
Set the default umask on the remote server to
is ommitted, the current umask is printed.
Identify yourself to the remote
is not specified and the server requires it,
will prompt the user for it (after disabling local echo).
field is not specified, and the
requires it, the user will be prompted for it.
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
is invoked with \*(Lqauto-login\*(Rq disabled, this
process is done automatically on initial connection to
In verbose mode, all responses from
server are displayed to the user.
if verbose is on, when a file transfer completes, statistics
regarding the efficiency of the transfer are reported.
Command arguments which have embedded spaces may be quoted with
.Sh 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 a ftp protocol
command to the remote server, and discarding any further data received.
The speed at which this is accomplished depends upon the remote
If the remote server does not support the
prompt will not appear until the remote server has completed
sending the requested file.
The terminal interrupt key sequence will be ignored when
has completed any local processing and is awaiting a reply
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
program must be killed by hand.
.Sh FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS
Files specified as arguments to
commands are processed according to the following rules.
If the first character of the file name is
remainder of the argument is interpreted as a shell command.
then forks a shell, using
with the argument supplied, and reads (writes) from the stdout
If the shell command includes spaces, the argument
useful example of this mechanism is: \*(Lqdir more\*(Rq.
Failing the above checks, if ``globbing'' is enabled,
local file names are expanded
according to the rules used in the
command expects a single local file (.e.g.
only the first filename generated by the "globbing" operation is used.
commands with unspecified local file names, the local filename is
the remote filename, which may be altered by a
The resulting filename may then be altered if
commands with unspecified remote file names, the remote filename is
the local filename, which may be altered by a
The resulting filename may then be altered by the remote server if
.Sh FILE TRANSFER PARAMETERS
The FTP specification specifies many parameters which may
may be one of \*(Lqascii\*(Rq, \*(Lqimage\*(Rq (binary),
\*(Lqebcdic\*(Rq, and \*(Lqlocal byte size\*(Rq (for
supports the ascii and image types of file transfer,
plus local byte size 8 for
supports only the default values for the remaining
file transfer parameters:
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,
Identify a remote machine
The auto-login process searches the
token that matches the remote machine specified on the
Once a match is made, the subsequent
stopping when the end of file is reached or another
token, and it must be after all
This is normally used as:
.Dl default login anonymous password user@site
machines not specified in
flag to disable auto-login.
Identify a user on the remote machine.
If this token is present, the auto-login process will initiate
a login using the specified
.It Ic password Ar string
If this token is present, the auto-login process will supply the
specified string if the remote server requires a password as part
Note that if this token is present in the
will abort the auto-login process if the
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
This token functions like the
A macro is defined with the specified name; its contents begin with the
line and continue until a null line (consecutive new-line
characters) is encountered.
is defined, it is automatically executed as the last step in the
utilizes the following environment variables.
For default location of a
Correct execution of many commands depends upon proper behavior
An error in the treatment of carriage returns
This correction may result in incorrect transfers of binary files
servers using the ascii type.
Avoid this problem by using the binary image type.