solaris - ftp (1)
NAME
ftp - file transfer program
SYNOPSIS
ftp [ -dgintv ] [ hostname ]
AVAILABILITY
SUNWcsu
DESCRIPTION
The ftp command is the user interface to the Internet stan-
dard File Transfer Protocol (FTP). ftp transfers files to
and from a remote network site.
The client host with which ftp is to communicate may be
specified on the command line. If this is done, ftp immedi-
ately attempts to establish a connection to an FTP server on
that host; otherwise, ftp enters its command interpreter and
awaits instructions from the user. When ftp is awaiting
commands from the user, it displays the prompt ftp>>.
OPTIONS
The following options may be specified at the command line,
or to the command interpreter:
-d Enable debugging.
-g Disable filename globbing.
-i Turn off interactive prompting during multiple file
transfers.
-n Do not attempt auto-login upon initial connection. If
auto-login is not disabled, ftp checks the .netrc 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 login name of the account on the
remote machine (the default is the login name on the
local machine), and, if necessary, prompts for a pass-
word and an account with which to login.
-t Enable packet tracing (unimplemented).
-v Show all responses from the remote server, as well as
report on data transfer statistics. This is turned on
by default if ftp is running interactively with its
input coming from the user's terminal.
The following commands can be specified to the command
interpreter:
! [ command ]
Run command as a shell command on the local machine.
If no command is given, invoke an interactive shell.
$ 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 remote-file is not specified, the local file name is
used, subject to alteration by any ntrans or nmap set-
tings. File transfer uses the current settings for
representation type, file structure, and transfer mode.
ascii
Set the representation type to network ASCII. This is
the default type.
bell Sound a bell after each file transfer command is com-
pleted.
binary
Set the representation type to image.
bye Terminate the FTP session with the remote server and
exit ftp. An EOF 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.
close
Terminate the FTP session with the remote server, and
return to the command interpreter. Any defined macros
are erased.
cr Toggle RETURN stripping during network ASCII type file
retrieval. Records are denoted by a RETURN/LINEFEED
sequence during network ASCII type file transfer. When
cr is on (the default), RETURN characters are stripped
from this sequence to conform with the UNIX system sin-
gle LINEFEED record delimiter. Records on non-UNIX-
system remote hosts may contain single LINEFEED charac-
ters; when an network ASCII type transfer is made,
these LINEFEED characters 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
Toggle debugging mode. 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 direc-
tory, remote-directory, and, optionally, placing the
output in local-file. If no directory is specified,
the current working directory on the remote machine is
used. If no local file is specified, or local-file is
-, output is sent to the terminal.
disconnect
A synonym for close.
form [ format-name ]
Set the carriage control format subtype of the
representation type to format-name. The only valid
format-name is non-print, which corresponds to the
default non-print subtype.
get remote-file [ local-file ]
Retrieve the remote-file 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 case, ntrans, and
nmap settings. The current settings for representation
type, file structure, and transfer mode are used while
transferring the file.
glob Toggle filename expansion, or globbing, for mdelete,
mget and mput. If globbing is turned off, filenames
are taken literally.
Globbing for mput is done as in sh(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 radically
different from expansion of the name of an ordinary
file: the exact result depends on the remote operating
system and FTP server, and can be previewed by doing
mls remote-files -.
mget and mput are not meant to transfer entire direc-
tory subtrees of files. You can do this by transfer-
ring a tar(1) archive of the subtree (using a represen-
tation type of image as set by the binary command).
hash Toggle hash-sign (#) printing for each data block
transferred. The size of a data block is 8192 bytes.
help [ command ]
Print an informative message about the meaning of com-
mand. If no argument is given, ftp prints a list of
the known commands.
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 | -al ] [ local-file ]
Print an abbreviated listing of the contents of a
directory on the remote machine. If remote-directory
is left unspecified, the current working directory is
used.
The -a option lists all entries, including those that
begin with a dot (.), which are normally not listed.
The -l option lists files in long format, giving mode,
number of links, owner, group, size in bytes, and time
of last modification for each file. If the file is a
special file, the size field instead contains the major
and minor device numbers rather than a size. If the
file is a symbolic link, the filename is printed fol-
lowed by and the pathname of the referenced file.
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 RETURN characters from the ter-
minal) terminates macro input mode. There is a limit
of 16 macros and 4096 total characters in all defined
macros. Macros remain defined until a close command is
executed.
The macro processor interprets $ and \ as special char-
acters. 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 $.
mdelete remote-files
Delete the remote-files on the remote machine.
mdir remote-files local-file
Like dir, except multiple remote files may be speci-
fied. If interactive prompting is on, ftp will prompt
the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the
target local file 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 ls(1), except multiple remote files may be speci-
fied. If interactive prompting 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 transfer mode to mode-name. The only valid
mode-name is stream, which corresponds to the default
stream mode. This implementation only supports stream,
and requires that it be specified.
mput local-files
Expand wild cards in the list of local files given as
arguments 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.
nmap [ 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 mput commands and put commands issued
without a specified remote target filename. If argu-
ments are specified, local filenames are mapped during
mget commands and get commands issued without a speci-
fied local target filename.
This command is useful when connecting to a non-UNIX-
system remote host with different file naming conven-
tions or practices. The mapping follows the pattern
set by inpattern and outpattern. inpattern is a tem-
plate for incoming filenames (which may have already
been processed according to the ntrans and case set-
tings). Variable templating is accomplished by includ-
ing the sequences $1, $2, ..., $9 in inpattern. Use \
to prevent this special treatment of the $ character.
All other characters are treated literally, and are
used to determine 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
filename. The sequences $1, $2, ..., $9 are replaced
by any value resulting from the inpattern template.
The sequence $0 is replaced by the original filename.
Additionally, 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 filenames myfile.data and
myfile.data.old, myfile.file for the input filename
myfile, and myfile.myfile for the input filename
.myfile. SPACE characters may be included in outpat-
tern, 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 mechan-
ism. If no arguments are specified, the filename
character translation mechanism is unset. If arguments
are specified, characters in remote filenames are
translated during mput commands and put commands issued
without a specified remote target filename, and charac-
ters in local filenames are translated during mget com-
mands and get commands issued without a specified local
target filename.
This command is useful when connecting to a non-UNIX-
system remote host with different file naming conven-
tions 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.
Only 16 characters can be translated when using the
ntrans command under ftp. Use case (described above)
if needing to convert the entire alphabet.
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
setting), ftp will also attempt to automatically log
the user in to the FTP server.
prompt
Toggle interactive prompting. Interactive prompting
occurs during multiple file transfers to allow the user
to selectively retrieve or store files. By default,
prompting is turned on. If prompting is turned off,
any mget or mput will transfer all files, and any
mdelete will delete all files.
proxy ftp-command
Execute an FTP command on a secondary control connec-
tion. This command allows simultaneous connection to
two remote FTP servers for transferring files between
the two servers. The first proxy command should be an
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 proxy: open will not define new macros during the
auto-login process, close will not erase existing macro
definitions, get and mget transfer files from the host
on the primary control connection to the host on the
secondary control connection, and put, mputd, and
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
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 processing according to any ntrans or nmap set-
tings in naming the remote file. File transfer uses
the current settings for representation type, file
structure, and transfer mode.
pwd Print the name of the current working directory on the
remote machine.
quit A synonym for bye.
quote arg1 arg2 ...
Send the arguments specified, verbatim, to the remote
FTP server. A single FTP reply code is expected in
return. (The remotehelp command displays a list of
valid arguments.)
quote should be used only by experienced users who are
familiar with the FTP protocol.
recv remote-file [ local-file]
A synonym for get.
remotehelp [ command-name ]
Request help from the remote FTP server. If a
command-name is specified it is supplied to the server
as well.
rename from to
Rename the file from on the remote machine to have the
name to.
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.
rmdir 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 get or 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. runique will not affect local files gen-
erated from a shell command. The default value is off.
send local-file [ remote-file ]
A synonym for put.
sendport
Toggle the use of PORT commands. By default, ftp will
attempt to use a PORT command when establishing a con-
nection for each data transfer. The use of PORT com-
mands 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 when connected
to certain FTP implementations that ignore PORT com-
mands but incorrectly indicate they have been accepted.
status
Show the current status of ftp.
struct [ struct-name ]
Set the file structure to struct-name. The only valid
struct-name is file, which corresponds to the default
file structure. The implementation only supports file,
and requires that it be specified.
sunique
Toggle storing of files on remote machine under unique
file names. The remote FTP server must support the
STOU command for successful completion. The remote
server will report the unique name. Default value is
off.
tenex
Set the representation type to that needed to talk to
TENEX machines.
trace
Toggle packet tracing (unimplemented).
type [ type-name ]
Set the representation type to type-name. The valid
type-names are ascii for network ASCII, binary or image
for image, and tenex for local byte size with a byte
size of 8 (used to talk to TENEX machines). If no type
is specified, the current type is printed. The default
type is network ASCII.
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 the user for it (after disabling local
echo). If an account field is not specified, and the
FTP server requires it, the user will be prompted for
it. If an account field is specified, an account com-
mand 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 ftp is invoked
with auto-login disabled, this process is done automat-
ically on initial connection to the FTP server.
verbose
Toggle verbose mode. In verbose mode, all responses
from the FTP server are displayed to the user. In
addition, if verbose mode is on, when a file transfer
completes, statistics regarding the efficiency of the
transfer are reported. By default, verbose mode is on
if ftp's commands are coming from a terminal, and off
otherwise.
? [ command ]
A synonym for help.
Command arguments which have embedded spaces may be quoted
with quote (") marks.
If any command argument which is not indicated as being
optional is not specified, ftp will prompt for that argu-
ment.
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 an FTP protocol ABOR
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 ABOR process-
ing. If the remote server does not support the ABOR com-
mand, 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 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 viola-
tions of the ftp protocol. If the delay results from unex-
pected remote server behavior, the local ftp program must be
killed by hand.
FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS
Local files specified as arguments to ftp commands are pro-
cessed according to the following rules.
1) If the file name - is specified, the standard input
(for reading) or standard output (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(3S) with
the argument supplied, and reads (writes) from the
standard output (standard input) of that shell. If the
shell command includes SPACE characters, the argument
must be quoted; for example "| ls -lt". A particularly
useful example 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 sh(1); see the glob command. If the ftp command
expects a single local file (for example, 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 altered 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 altered by a ntrans or nmap set-
ting. The resulting filename may then be altered by
the remote server if sunique is on.
FILE TRANSFER PARAMETERS
The FTP specification specifies many parameters which may
affect a file transfer.
The representation type may be one of network ASCII, EBCDIC,
image, or local byte size with a specified byte size (for
PDP-10's and PDP-20's mostly). The network ASCII and EBCDIC
types have a further subtype which specifies whether verti-
cal format control (NEWLINE characters, form feeds, etc.)
are to be passed through (non-print), provided in TELNET
format (TELNET format controls), or provided in ASA (FOR-
TRAN) (carriage control (ASA)) format. ftp supports the
network ASCII (subtype non-print only) and image types, plus
local byte size with a byte size of 8 for communicating with
TENEX machines.
The file structure may be one of file (no record structure),
record, or page. ftp supports only the default value, which
is file.
The transfer mode may be one of stream, block, or
compressed. ftp supports only the default value, which is
stream.
FILES
~/.netrc
SEE ALSO
ls(1), rcp(1), sh(1), tar(1), ftpd(1M), popen(3S), netrc(4)
NOTES
Correct execution of many commands depends upon proper
behavior by the remote server.
An error in the treatment of carriage returns in the 4.2 BSD
code handling transfers with a representation type of net-
work ASCII has been corrected. This correction may result
in incorrect transfers of binary files to and from 4.2 BSD
servers using a representation type of network ASCII. Avoid
this problem by using the image type.