linux - ftp (1)



SYNOPSIS
     ftp [-v] [-d] [-i] [-n] [-g] [host]


DESCRIPTION
     Ftp is the user interface to the ARPANET 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 inter-
     preter.

     -v    Verbose option forces ftp to show all responses from the remote
           server, as well as report on data transfer statistics.

     -n    Restrains ftp from attempting ``auto-login'' upon initial connec-
           tion.  If auto-login is enabled, ftp will check the .netrc (see be-
           low) file 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.

     -i    Turns off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers.

     -d    Enables debugging.

     -g    Disables file name globbing.

     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 us-
     er.  The following commands are recognized by ftp:

     ! [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.

     $ 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

     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 working directory on the remote machine to remote-
                 directory.

     cdup        Change the remote machine working directory to the parent of
                 the current remote machine working directory.

     chmod mode file-name
                 Change the permission modes of the file file-name on the re-
                 mote sytem to mode.

     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 re-
                 trieval.  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 line-
                 feeds; when an ascii type transfer is made, these linefeeds
                 may be distinguished from a record delimiter only when cr is
                 off.

     delete remote-file
                 Delete the file remote-file on the remote machine.

     debug [debug-value]
                 Toggle debugging mode.  If an optional debug-value is speci-
                 fied 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 tar-
                 get local file for receiving dir output.  If no directory is
                 specified, the current working directory on the remote ma-
                 chine is used.  If no local file is specified, or local-file
                 is -, output comes to the terminal.

     disconnect  A synonym for close.
                 globbing is turned off with glob, the file name arguments are
                 taken literally and not expanded.  Globbing for mput is done
                 as in csh(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-files -'
                 Note: mget and mput are not meant to transfer entire directo-
                 ry 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 trans-
                 ferred.  The size of a data block is 1024 bytes.

     help [command]
                 Print an informative message about the meaning of command. If
                 no argument is given, ftp prints a list of the known com-
                 mands.

     idle [seconds]
                 Set the inactivity timer on the remote server to seconds sec-
                 onds.  If seconds is ommitted, the current inactivity timer
                 is printed.

     lcd [directory]
                 Change the working directory on the local machine.  If no
                 directory is specified, the user's home directory is used.

     ls [remote-directory] [local-file]
                 Print a listing of the contents of a directory on the remote
                 machine.  The listing includes any system-dependent informa-
                 tion 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 working 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.

     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 macros.  Macros remain defined un-
                 til a close command is executed.  The macro processor inter-
                 prets `$' and `\' as special characters.  A `$' 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
                 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 working 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 prompt-
                 ing 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.

     modtime file-name
                 Show the last modification time of the file on the remote ma-
                 chine.

     mput local-files
                 Expand wild cards in the list of local files given as argu-
                 ments 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.

     newer file-name
                 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 newer. Otherwise, this command is identical to
                 get.

     nlist [remote-directory] [local-file]
                 Print a  list of the files in a directory on the remote ma-
                 chine.  If remote-directory is left unspecified, the current
                 working 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.

     nmap [inpattern outpattern]
                 prevent this special treatment of the `$' character.  All
                 other characters are treated literally, and are used to de-
                 termine 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 file-
                 name.  The sequences `$1', `$2', ...., `$9' are replaced by
                 any value resulting from the inpattern template.  The se-
                 quence `$0' is replace by the original filename.  Additional-
                 ly, the sequence `[seq1, seq2]' 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 file-
                 names "myfile.data" and "myfile.data.old", "myfile.file" for
                 the input filename "myfile", and "myfile.myfile" for the in-
                 put 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 trans-
                 lation mechanism is unset.  If arguments are specified, char-
                 acters in remote filenames are translated during mput com-
                 mands and put commands issued without a specified remote tar-
                 get filename.  If arguments are specified, characters in lo-
                 cal 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 auto-
                 matically log the user in to the FTP server (see below).

     prompt      Toggle interactive prompting.  Interactive prompting occurs
                 during multiple file transfers to allow the user to selec-
                 tively 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.

                 primary control connection.  Third party file transfers de-
                 pend 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 process-
                 ing 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 working directory on the remote
                 machine.

     quit        A synonym for bye.

     quote arg1 arg2 ...
                 The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote FTP
                 server.

     recv remote-file [local-file]
                 A synonym for get.

     reget remote-file [local-file]
                 Reget acts like get, except that if local-file exists and is
                 smaller than remote-file, local-file is presumed to be a par-
                 tially transferred copy of remote-file and the transfer is
                 continued from the apparent point of failure.  This command
                 is useful when transferring very large files over networks
                 that are prone to dropping connections.

     remotehelp [command-name]
                 Request help from the remote FTP server.  If a command-name
                 is specified it is supplied to the server as well.

     remotestatus [file-name]
                 With no arguments, show status of remote machine.  If file-
                 name is specified, show status of file-name on remote ma-
                 chine.

     rename [from] [to]
                 Rename the file from on the remote machine, to the file to.

     reset       Clear reply queue.  This command re-synchronizes command/re-
                 ply sequencing with the remote ftp server.  Resynchronization
                 may be necessary following a violation of the ftp protocol by
                 the remote server.

     restart marker
                 Restart the immediately following get or put at the indicated
                 marker. On UNIX systems, marker is usually a byte offset into
                 the file.

     send local-file [remote-file]
                 A synonym for put.

     sendport    Toggle the use of PORT commands.  By default, ftp will at-
                 tempt 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.

     site arg1 arg2 ...
                 The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote FTP
                 server as a SITE command.

     size file-name
                 Return size of file-name on remote machine.

     status      Show the current status of ftp.

     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.  Remote ftp server must support ftp protocol STOU com-
                 mand for successful completion.  The remote server will re-
                 port unique name.  Default value is off.

     system      Show the type of operating system running on the remote ma-
                 chine.

     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 speci-
                 fied, the current type is printed.  The default type is net-
                 work ASCII.

     umask [newmask]
                 Set the default umask on the remote server to newmask. If
                 newmask is ommitted, the current umask 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
                 fault, 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 ABOR command to the remote serv-
     er, and discarding any further data received.  The speed at which this is
     accomplished depends upon the remote server's support for ABOR process-
     ing.  If the remote server does not support the ABOR 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 complet-
     ed 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 viola-
     tions of the ftp protocol.  If the delay results from unexpected remote
     server behavior, the local ftp program must be killed by hand.


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(3) with the argument supplied, and reads (writes) from
          the stdout (stdin).  If the shell command includes spaces, the argu-
          ment must be quoted; e.g.  ``" ls -lt"''.  A particularly useful ex-
          ample of this mechanism is: ``dir more''.

     3.   Failing the above checks, if ``globbing'' is enabled, local file
          names are expanded according to the rules used in the csh(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 al-
          tered 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 al-

     The .netrc file contains login and initialization information used by the
     auto-login process.  It resides in the user's home directory.  The fol-
     lowing 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 ma-
               chine 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 an-
               other machine or a default 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 ma-
               chines 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 pre-
               sent, 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 for any user other
               than anonymous, 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 pre-
               sent, 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.

     macdef name
               Define a macro.  This token functions like the ftp macdef com-
               mand 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.


ENVIRONMENT
     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 incor-
     rect transfers of binary files to and from 4.2BSD servers using the ascii
     type.  Avoid this problem by using the binary image type.


4.2 Berkeley Distribution July 30, 1991 10