NAME¶
sftp —
secure file transfer
program
SYNOPSIS¶
sftp |
[-1246Cpqrv]
[-B buffer_size]
[-b batchfile]
[-c cipher]
[-D sftp_server_path]
[-F ssh_config]
[-i identity_file]
[-l limit]
[-o ssh_option]
[-P port]
[-R num_requests]
[-S program]
[-s subsystem | sftp_server] host |
sftp |
[user@]host[:file
...] |
sftp |
[user@]host[:dir[/]] |
sftp |
-b batchfile
[user@]host |
DESCRIPTION¶
sftp is an interactive file transfer program, similar to
ftp(1), which performs all operations over an encrypted
ssh(1) transport. It may also use many features of ssh, such
as public key authentication and compression.
sftp connects
and logs into the specified
host, then enters an
interactive command mode.
The second usage format will retrieve files automatically if a non-interactive
authentication method is used; otherwise it will do so after successful
interactive authentication.
The third usage format allows
sftp to start in a remote
directory.
The final usage format allows for automated sessions using the
-b option. In such cases, it is necessary to configure
non-interactive authentication to obviate the need to enter a password at
connection time (see
sshd(8) and
ssh-keygen(1) for details).
Since some usage formats use colon characters to delimit host names from path
names, IPv6 addresses must be enclosed in square brackets to avoid ambiguity.
The options are as follows:
- -1
- Specify the use of protocol version 1.
- -2
- Specify the use of protocol version 2.
- -4
- Forces sftp to use IPv4 addresses
only.
- -6
- Forces sftp to use IPv6 addresses
only.
- -B
buffer_size
- Specify the size of the buffer that sftp
uses when transferring files. Larger buffers require fewer round trips at
the cost of higher memory consumption. The default is 32768 bytes.
- -b
batchfile
- Batch mode reads a series of commands from an input
batchfile instead of stdin. Since
it lacks user interaction it should be used in conjunction with
non-interactive authentication. A batchfile of
‘-’ may be used to indicate standard input.
sftp will abort if any of the following commands fail:
get, put, rename,
ln, rm, mkdir,
chdir, ls, lchdir,
chmod, chown, chgrp,
lpwd, df, symlink,
and lmkdir. Termination on error can be suppressed on a
command by command basis by prefixing the command with a ‘-’
character (for example, -rm /tmp/blah*).
- -C
- Enables compression (via ssh's -C
flag).
- -c
cipher
- Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data
transfers. This option is directly passed to
ssh(1).
- -D
sftp_server_path
- Connect directly to a local sftp server (rather than via
ssh(1)). This option may be useful in debugging the
client and server.
- -F
ssh_config
- Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for
ssh(1). This option is directly passed to
ssh(1).
- -i
identity_file
- Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for
public key authentication is read. This option is directly passed to
ssh(1).
- -l
limit
- Limits the used bandwidth, specified in Kbit/s.
- -o
ssh_option
- Can be used to pass options to ssh in the
format used in ssh_config(5). This is useful for
specifying options for which there is no separate sftp
command-line flag. For example, to specify an alternate port use:
sftp -oPort=24. For full details of the options listed
below, and their possible values, see ssh_config(5).
- AddressFamily
-
- BatchMode
-
- BindAddress
-
- ChallengeResponseAuthentication
-
- CheckHostIP
-
- Cipher
-
- Ciphers
-
- Compression
-
- CompressionLevel
-
- ConnectionAttempts
-
- ConnectTimeout
-
- ControlMaster
-
- ControlPath
-
- ControlPersist
-
- GlobalKnownHostsFile
-
- GSSAPIAuthentication
-
- GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
-
- HashKnownHosts
-
- Host
-
- HostbasedAuthentication
-
- HostKeyAlgorithms
-
- HostKeyAlias
-
- HostName
-
- IdentityFile
-
- IdentitiesOnly
-
- IPQoS
-
- KbdInteractiveAuthentication
-
- KbdInteractiveDevices
-
- KexAlgorithms
-
- LogLevel
-
- MACs
-
- NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
-
- NumberOfPasswordPrompts
-
- PasswordAuthentication
-
- PKCS11Provider
-
- Port
-
- PreferredAuthentications
-
- Protocol
-
- ProxyCommand
-
- PubkeyAuthentication
-
- RekeyLimit
-
- RhostsRSAAuthentication
-
- RSAAuthentication
-
- SendEnv
-
- ServerAliveInterval
-
- ServerAliveCountMax
-
- StrictHostKeyChecking
-
- TCPKeepAlive
-
- UsePrivilegedPort
-
- User
-
- UserKnownHostsFile
-
- VerifyHostKeyDNS
-
- -P
port
- Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host.
- -p
- Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from
the original files transferred.
- -q
- Quiet mode: disables the progress meter as well as warning
and diagnostic messages from ssh(1).
- -R
num_requests
- Specify how many requests may be outstanding at any one
time. Increasing this may slightly improve file transfer speed but will
increase memory usage. The default is 64 outstanding requests.
- -r
- Recursively copy entire directories when uploading and
downloading. Note that sftp does not follow symbolic
links encountered in the tree traversal.
- -S
program
- Name of the program to use for the
encrypted connection. The program must understand ssh(1)
options.
- -s
subsystem | sftp_server
- Specifies the SSH2 subsystem or the path for an sftp server
on the remote host. A path is useful for using sftp over
protocol version 1, or when the remote sshd(8) does not
have an sftp subsystem configured.
- -v
- Raise logging level. This option is also passed to
ssh.
INTERACTIVE COMMANDS¶
Once in interactive mode,
sftp understands a set of commands
similar to those of
ftp(1). Commands are case insensitive.
Pathnames that contain spaces must be enclosed in quotes. Any special
characters contained within pathnames that are recognized by
glob(3) must be escaped with backslashes (‘\’).
- bye
- Quit sftp.
- cd
path
- Change remote directory to path.
- chgrp
grp path
- Change group of file path to
grp. path may contain
glob(3) characters and may match multiple files.
grp must be a numeric GID.
- chmod
mode path
- Change permissions of file path to
mode. path may contain
glob(3) characters and may match multiple files.
- chown
own path
- Change owner of file path to
own. path may contain
glob(3) characters and may match multiple files.
own must be a numeric UID.
- df
[-hi]
[path]
- Display usage information for the filesystem holding the
current directory (or path if specified). If the
-h flag is specified, the capacity information will be
displayed using "human-readable" suffixes. The
-i flag requests display of inode information in
addition to capacity information. This command is only supported on
servers that implement the “statvfs@openssh.com”
extension.
- exit
- Quit sftp.
- get
[-Ppr]
remote-path
[local-path]
- Retrieve the remote-path and store it
on the local machine. If the local path name is not specified, it is given
the same name it has on the remote machine.
remote-path may contain glob(3)
characters and may match multiple files. If it does and
local-path is specified, then
local-path must specify a directory.
If either the -P or -p flag is
specified, then full file permissions and access times are copied too.
If the -r flag is specified then directories will be
copied recursively. Note that sftp does not follow
symbolic links when performing recursive transfers.
- help
- Display help text.
- lcd
path
- Change local directory to path.
- lls
[ls-options
[path]]
- Display local directory listing of either
path or current directory if
path is not specified.
ls-options may contain any flags supported by the
local system's ls(1) command. path
may contain glob(3) characters and may match multiple
files.
- lmkdir
path
- Create local directory specified by
path.
- ln
[-s] oldpath
newpath
- Create a link from oldpath to
newpath. If the -s flag is
specified the created link is a symbolic link, otherwise it is a hard
link.
- lpwd
- Print local working directory.
- ls
[-1afhlnrSt]
[path]
- Display a remote directory listing of either
path or the current directory if
path is not specified. path
may contain glob(3) characters and may match multiple
files.
The following flags are recognized and alter the behaviour of
ls accordingly:
- -1
- Produce single columnar output.
- -a
- List files beginning with a dot (‘.’).
- -f
- Do not sort the listing. The default sort order is
lexicographical.
- -h
- When used with a long format option, use unit suffixes:
Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte, Petabyte, and Exabyte in
order to reduce the number of digits to four or fewer using powers of
2 for sizes (K=1024, M=1048576, etc.).
- -l
- Display additional details including permissions and
ownership information.
- -n
- Produce a long listing with user and group information
presented numerically.
- -r
- Reverse the sort order of the listing.
- -S
- Sort the listing by file size.
- -t
- Sort the listing by last modification time.
- lumask
umask
- Set local umask to umask.
- mkdir
path
- Create remote directory specified by
path.
- progress
- Toggle display of progress meter.
- put
[-Ppr]
local-path
[remote-path]
- Upload local-path and store it on the
remote machine. If the remote path name is not specified, it is given the
same name it has on the local machine. local-path
may contain glob(3) characters and may match multiple
files. If it does and remote-path is specified, then
remote-path must specify a directory.
If either the -P or -p flag is
specified, then full file permissions and access times are copied too.
If the -r flag is specified then directories will be
copied recursively. Note that sftp does not follow
symbolic links when performing recursive transfers.
- pwd
- Display remote working directory.
- quit
- Quit sftp.
- rename
oldpath newpath
- Rename remote file from oldpath to
newpath.
- rm
path
- Delete remote file specified by
path.
- rmdir
path
- Remove remote directory specified by
path.
- symlink
oldpath newpath
- Create a symbolic link from oldpath
to newpath.
- version
- Display the sftp protocol version.
- !command
- Execute command in local shell.
- !
- Escape to local shell.
- ?
- Synonym for help.
SEE ALSO¶
ftp(1),
ls(1),
scp(1),
ssh(1),
ssh-add(1),
ssh-keygen(1),
glob(3),
ssh_config(5),
sftp-server(8),
sshd(8)
T. Ylonen and S.
Lehtinen, SSH File Transfer Protocol,
draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-00.txt,
January 2001, work in progress
material.