netkit-ftp
NAME
file transfer program
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
is the user interface to the
standard File Transfer Protocol.
The program allows a user to transfer files to and from a
remote network site.
Options may be specified at the command line, or to the
command interpreter.
- p Use passive mode for data transfers. Allows use of ftp in environments where a firewall prevents connections from the outside world back to the client machine. Requires that the ftp server support the PASV command. This is the default if invoked as
- i Turns off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers.
- n Restrains from attempting "auto-login" upon initial connection. If auto-login is enabled, will check the
(see
netrc(5)
file in the user's home directory for an entry describing
an account on the remote machine.
If no entry exists,
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.
e
Disables command editing and history support, if it was compiled into
the
executable. Otherwise, does nothing.
g
Disables file name globbing.
v
Verbose option forces
to show all responses from the remote server, as well
as report on data transfer statistics.
d
Enables debugging.
The client host and an optional port number with which
is to communicate may be specified on the command line.
If this is done,
will immediately attempt to establish a connection to an
server on that host; otherwise,
will enter its command interpreter and await instructions
from the user.
When
is awaiting commands from the user the prompt
is provided to the user.
The following commands are recognized
by
- 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.
- args Execute the macro that was defined with the c macdef command. Arguments are passed to the macro unglobbed.
- 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.
- remote-file Append a local file to a file on the remote machine. If is left unspecified, the local file name is used in naming the remote file after being altered by any c ntrans or c nmap setting. File transfer uses the current settings for c type , c format , c mode , and c structure .
- ascii Set the file transfer c type to network This is the default type.
- bell Arrange that a bell be sounded after each file transfer command is completed.
- binary Set the file transfer c type to support binary image transfer.
- bye Terminate the session with the remote server and exit An end of file will also terminate the session and exit.
- case Toggle remote computer file name case mapping during c mget commands. When c 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.
- remote-directory Change the working directory on the remote machine to
- cdup Change the remote machine working directory to the parent of the current remote machine working directory.
- file-name Change the permission modes of the file on the remote sytem to
- close Terminate the 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 c cr is on (the default), carriage returns are stripped from this sequence to conform with the single linefeed record delimiter. Records on
remote systems may contain single linefeeds;
when an ascii type transfer is made, these linefeeds may be
distinguished from a record delimiter only when
c cr
is off.
qc
Toggle the printing of control characters in the output of
type commands. When this is turned on, control characters
are replaced with a question mark if the output file is the
standard output. This is the default when the standard
output is a tty.
remote-file
Delete the file
on the remote machine.
debug-value
Toggle debugging mode.
If an optional
is specified it is used to set the debugging level.
When debugging is on,
prints each command sent to the remote machine, preceded
by the string
Xo
c dir
Print a listing of the directory contents in the
directory,
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
c dir
output.
If no directory is specified, the current working
directory on the remote machine is used.
If no local
file is specified, or
is
output comes to the terminal.
disconnect
A synonym for
format
Set the file transfer
c form
to
The default format is "file".
local-file
Retrieve the
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
c case ,
c ntrans ,
and
c nmap
settings.
The current settings for
c type ,
c form ,
c mode ,
and
c structure
are used while transferring the file.
glob
Toggle filename expansion for
c mdelete ,
c mget
and
c mput .
If globbing is turned off with
c glob ,
the file name arguments
are taken literally and not expanded.
Globbing for
c mput
is done as in
csh(1)
For
c mdelete
and
c 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
Note:
c mget
and
c 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 1024 bytes.
command
Print an informative message about the meaning of
If no argument is given,
prints a list of the known commands.
seconds
Set the inactivity timer on the remote server to
seconds.
If
is ommitted, the current inactivity timer is printed.
directory
Change the working directory on the local machine.
If
no
is specified, the user's home directory is used.
Xo
c ls
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
systems will produce
output from the command
(See also
c nlist . )
If
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
c ls
output.
If no local file is specified, or if
is
the output is sent to the terminal.
macro-name
Define a macro.
Subsequent lines are stored as the macro
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 macros.
Macros remain defined until a
c 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 `$'.
remote-files
Delete the
on the remote machine.
local-file
Like
c dir ,
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
c mdir
output.
remote-files
Expand the
on the remote machine
and do a
c get
for each file name thus produced.
See
c glob
for details on the filename expansion.
Resulting file names will then be processed according to
c case ,
c ntrans ,
and
c nmap
settings.
Files are transferred into the local working directory,
which can be changed with
new local directories can be created with
directory-name
Make a directory on the remote machine.
local-file
Like
c nlist ,
except multiple remote files may be specified,
and the
must 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
c mls
output.
mode-name
Set the file transfer
c mode
to
The default mode is "stream" mode.
file-name
Show the last modification time of the file on the remote machine.
local-files
Expand wild cards in the list of local files given as arguments
and do a
c put
for each file in the resulting list.
See
c glob
for details of filename expansion.
Resulting file names will then be processed according to
c ntrans
and
c nmap
settings.
local-file
Get the file only if the modification time of the remote file is more
recent that the file on the current system.
If the file does not
exist on the current system, the remote file is considered
c newer .
Otherwise, this command is identical to
Xo
c nlist
Print a list of the files in a
directory on the remote machine.
If
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
c nlist
output.
If no local file is specified, or if
is
the output is sent to the terminal.
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
c mput
commands and
c put
commands issued without a specified remote target filename.
If arguments are specified, local filenames are mapped during
c mget
commands and
c get
commands issued without a specified local target filename.
This command is useful when connecting to a
remote computer
with different file naming conventions or practices.
The mapping follows the pattern set by
and
is a template for incoming filenames (which may have already been
processed according to the
c ntrans
and
c case
settings).
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
c nmap
variable values.
For example, given
$1.$2 and the remote file name "mydata.data", $1 would have the value
"mydata", and $2 would have the value "data".
The
determines the resulting mapped filename.
The sequences `$1', `$2', ...., `$9' are replaced by any value resulting
from the
template.
The sequence `$0' is replace by the original filename.
Additionally, the sequence
is replaced by
if
is not a null string; otherwise it is replaced by
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.myfile" for the input filename ".myfile".
Spaces may be included in
as in the example: `nmap $1 sed "s/ *$//" > $1' .
Use the `\' character to prevent special treatment
of the `$','[','[', and `,' characters.
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
c mput
commands and
c put
commands issued without a specified remote target filename.
If arguments are specified, characters in
local filenames are translated during
c mget
commands and
c get
commands issued without a specified local target filename.
This command is useful when connecting to a
remote computer
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.
port
Establish a connection to the specified
server.
An optional port number may be supplied,
in which case,
will attempt to contact an
server at that port.
If the
c auto-login
option is on (default),
will also attempt to automatically log the user in to
the
server (see below).
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
c mget
or
c mput
will transfer all files, and any
c mdelete
will delete all files.
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
c proxy
command should be an
c 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
c proxy :
c open
will not define new macros during the auto-login process,
c close
will not erase existing macro definitions,
c get
and
c mget
transfer files from the host on the primary control connection
to the host on the secondary control connection, and
c put ,
c mput ,
and
c 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
command by the server on the secondary control connection.
remote-file
Store a local file on the remote machine.
If
is left unspecified, the local file name is used
after processing according to any
c ntrans
or
c nmap
settings
in naming the remote file.
File transfer uses the
current settings for
c type ,
c format ,
c mode ,
and
c structure .
pwd
Print the name of the current working directory on the remote
machine.
quit
A synonym for
c bye .
...
The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote
server.
local-file
A synonym for get.
local-file
Reget acts like get, except that if
exists and is
smaller than
is presumed to be
a partially transferred copy of
and the transfer
is continued from the apparent point of failure.
If
does not exist ftp won't fetch the file.
This command
is useful when transferring very large files over networks that
are prone to dropping connections.
command-name
Request help from the remote
server.
If a
is specified it is supplied to the server as well.
file-name
With no arguments, show status of remote machine.
If
is specified, show status of
on remote machine.
Xo
c rename
Rename the file
on the remote machine, to the file
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.
marker
Restart the immediately following
c get
or
c put
at the
indicated
On
systems, marker is usually a byte
offset into the file.
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
c get
or
c 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
c runique
will not affect local files generated from a shell command
(see below).
The default value is off.
remote-file
A synonym for put.
sendport
Toggle the use of
commands.
By default,
will attempt to use a
command when establishing
a connection for each data transfer.
The use of
commands can prevent delays
when performing multiple file transfers.
If the
command fails,
will use the default data port.
When the use of
commands is disabled, no attempt will be made to use
commands for each data transfer.
This is useful
for certain
implementations which do ignore
commands but, incorrectly, indicate they've been accepted.
...
The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote
server as a
command.
file-name
Return size of
on remote machine.
status
Show the current status of
struct-name
Set the file transfer
to
By default "stream" structure is used.
sunique
Toggle storing of files on remote machine under unique file names.
Remote ftp server must support ftp protocol
command 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
machines.
trace
Toggle packet tracing.
type-name
Set the file transfer
c type
to
If no type is specified, the current type
is printed.
The default type is network
newmask
Set the default umask on the remote server to
If
is ommitted, the current umask is printed.
Xo
c user Ar user-name
Identify yourself to the remote
server.
If the
is not specified and the server requires it,
will prompt the user for it (after disabling local echo).
If an
field is not specified, and the
server
requires it, the user will be prompted for it.
If an
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
is invoked with "auto-login" disabled, this
process is done automatically on initial connection to
the
server.
verbose
Toggle verbose mode.
In verbose mode, all responses from
the
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.
command
A synonym for help.
Command arguments which have embedded spaces may be quoted with
quote `"' marks.
ABORTING A FILE TRANSFER
To abort a file transfer, use the terminal interrupt key
(usually Ctrl-C).
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
server's support for
processing.
If the remote server does not support the
command, an
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
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
program must be killed by hand.
FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS
Files specified as arguments to
commands are processed according to the following rules.
- t
If the file name
is specified, the
(for reading) or
(for writing) is used.
t
If the first character of the file name is
the
remainder of the argument is interpreted as a shell command.
then forks a shell, using
popen(3)
with the argument supplied, and reads (writes) from the stdout
(stdin).
If the shell command includes spaces, the argument
must be quoted; e.g.
"" ls -lt"".
A particularly
useful example of this mechanism is: "dir more".
t
Failing the above checks, if ``globbing'' is enabled,
local file names are expanded
according to the rules used in the
c.f. the
c glob
command.
If the
command expects a single local file (.e.g.
c put ) ,
only the first filename generated by the "globbing" operation is used.
t
For
c mget
commands and
c get
commands with unspecified local file names, the local filename is
the remote filename, which may be altered by a
c case ,
c ntrans ,
or
c nmap
setting.
The resulting filename may then be altered if
c runique
is on.
t
For
c mput
commands and
c put
commands with unspecified remote file names, the remote filename is
the local filename, which may be altered by a
c ntrans
or
c nmap
setting.
The resulting filename may then be altered by the remote server if
c sunique
is on.
FILE TRANSFER PARAMETERS
The FTP specification specifies many parameters which may
affect a file transfer.
The
c type
may be one of "ascii", "image" (binary),
"ebcdic", and "local byte size" (for
and
mostly).
supports the ascii and image types of file transfer,
plus local byte size 8 for
c tenex
mode transfers.
supports only the default values for the remaining
file transfer parameters:
c mode ,
c form ,
and
c struct .
ENVIRONMENT
utilizes the following environment variables.
- HOME For default location of a
file, if one exists.
SHELL
For default shell.
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
The
command appeared in
x 4.2 .
BUGS
Correct execution of many commands depends upon proper behavior
by the remote server.
An error in the treatment of carriage returns
in the
x 4.2
ascii-mode transfer code
has been corrected.
This correction may result in incorrect transfers of binary files
to and from
x 4.2
servers using the ascii type.
Avoid this problem by using the binary image type.
