NAME¶

sftp — secure file transfer program

SYNOPSIS¶

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). The options are as follows:

-1

Specify the use of protocol version 1.

-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, 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).

-F ssh_config

Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for ssh(1). This option is directly passed to ssh(1).

-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

 

GlobalKnownHostsFile

 

GSSAPIAuthentication

 

GSSAPIDelegateCredentials

 

HashKnownHosts

 

Host

 

HostbasedAuthentication

 

HostKeyAlgorithms

 

HostKeyAlias

 

HostName

 

IdentityFile

 

IdentitiesOnly

 

KbdInteractiveDevices

 

LogLevel

 

MACs

 

NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost

 

NumberOfPasswordPrompts

 

PasswordAuthentication

 

PKCS11Provider

 

Port

 

PreferredAuthentications

 

Protocol

 

ProxyCommand

 

PubkeyAuthentication

 

RekeyLimit

 

RhostsRSAAuthentication

 

RSAAuthentication

 

SendEnv

 

ServerAliveInterval

 

ServerAliveCountMax

 

StrictHostKeyChecking

 

TCPKeepAlive

 

UsePrivilegedPort

 

User

 

UserKnownHostsFile

 

VerifyHostKeyDNS

 

-P 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.

-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.

-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 [-P] 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 the -P flag is specified, then full file permissions and access times are copied too.

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 oldpath newpath

Create a symbolic link from oldpath to newpath.

lpwd

Print local working directory.

ls [-1aflnrSt] [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.

-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 [-P] 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 the -P flag is specified, then the file's full permission and access time are copied too.

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.

IPV6¶

IPv6 address can be used everywhere where IPv4 address. In all entries must be the IPv6 address enclosed in square brackets. Note: The square brackets are metacharacters for the shell and must be escaped in shell.

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.