Manual page for FTP(1C)
ftp - file transfer program
SYNOPSIS
ftp
[
-dgintv
]
[
hostname
]
AVAILABILITY
This command is available with the
Networking
software installation option. Refer to
[a manual with the abbreviation INSTALL]
for information on how to install optional software.
DESCRIPTION
ftp
is the user interface to the
ARPANET
standard 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
immediately 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
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 enabled,
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 password 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.
COMMANDS
- !
[ 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 left unspecified, the local file name is used in naming the
remote file after being altered by any
ntrans
or
nmap
setting.
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 completed.
- 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 single
LINEFEED
record delimiter.
Records on non-UNIX-system remote hosts may contain single
LINEFEED
characters; 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
[ debug-value ]
-
Toggle debugging mode.
If an optional
debug-value
is specified 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 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
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 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 directory subtrees of files. You can do this by
transferring a
tar.1
archive of the subtree (using a
``representation type'' of ``image'' as set by the
binary
command).
- hash
-
Toggle hash-sign
(#)
printing for each data block transferred.
- help
[ command ]
-
Print an informative message about the meaning of
command.
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 ] [ 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. 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 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
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
`$'.
- mdelete
[ remote-files ]
-
Delete the
remote-files
on the remote machine.
- mdir remote-files local-file
-
Like
dir,
except multiple remote files may be specified.
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.1v
except multiple remote files may be specified.
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.
- 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 arguments are specified, local filenames are mapped during
mget
commands 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 conventions or practices.
The mapping follows the pattern set by
inpattern
and
outpattern.
inpattern
is a template for incoming filenames (which may have already been
processed according to the
ntrans
and
case
settings).
Variable templating is accomplished by including 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
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
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
characters in local 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-system
remote host 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 automatically 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 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 connection.
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,
mput,
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
settings 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.
- 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.
Note:
runique
will not affect local files generated from a shell command
(see below).
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 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
when connected to certain
FTP
implementations that ignore
PORT
commands 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.
- 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 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
ftp
is invoked with ``auto-login'' disabled, this
process is done automatically 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 argument.
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 server, and discarding any further data received.
The speed at which this is accomplished depends upon the remote
server's support for
ABOR
processing.
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 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
ftp
program must be killed by hand.
FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS
Local files specified as arguments to
ftp
commands are processed 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
csh.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
setting.
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 vertical 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
(FORTRAN) (``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''.
SEE ALSO
csh.1
ls.1v
rcp.1c
tar.1
popen.3s
netrc.5
ftpd.8c
BUGS
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
``network
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.
Created by unroff & hp-tools.
© somebody (See intro for details). All Rights Reserved.
Last modified 11/5/97