Provided by: inetutils-ftp_2.5-3ubuntu4_amd64 
NAME
ftp — ARPANET file transfer program
SYNOPSIS
ftp [option ...] [user@host [port]]
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. A user can be specified in the host by prefixing it
followed by an @.
OPTIONS
Options may be specified at the command line, or to the command interpreter.
-4, --ipv4
Use IPv4 to connect to hosts.
-6, --ipv6
Use IPv6 to connect to hosts.
-A, --active
Enable active mode transfer, default for ftp.
-p, --passive
Enable passive mode transfer, default for pftp.
--prompt [text]
Print a command line prompt (optionally with text), even if not on a tty.
-N, --netrc filename
Select a specific initialization file.
-v, --verbose
Verbose option forces ftp to show all responses from the remote server, as well as report on data
transfer statistics.
-t, --trace
Enable packet tracing.
-d, --debug
Enables debugging.
-e, --no-edit
Disable command line editing.
-n, --no-login
Restrains ftp from attempting “auto-login” upon initial connection. If auto-login is enabled, ftp
will check the .netrc (see below) 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, --no-prompt
Turns off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers.
-g, --no-glob
Disables file name globbing.
--usage
Display a short usage message.
-?, --help
Display a help list.
-V, --version
Display program version.
OPERATION
The client host (with an optional prefixed user followed by an @) 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 user.
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 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 type, format, mode, and structure.
ascii Set the file transfer type to network ASCII. This is the default type.
bell Arrange that a bell be sounded after each file transfer command is completed.
binary Set the file transfer type to support binary image transfer.
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 remote system 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 retrieval. 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 linefeeds;
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 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 interactive prompting is on, ftp will
prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the target local file for
receiving dir output. 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 comes to
the terminal.
disconnect A synonym for close.
epsv4 Toggle the use of EPSV/EPRT for IPv4 addressing. Default is off.
form format
Set the file transfer form to format. The only supported format is “non-print”.
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 type, form, mode, and
structure are used while transferring the file.
glob Toggle filename expansion for mdelete, mget and mput. If 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 directory subtrees of files. That can
be done by transferring a tar(1) archive of the subtree (in binary mode).
hash [size]
Toggle hash-sign ("#") printing for each data block transferred. The size of a data block
can optionally be specified. If not given, it defaults to 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 commands.
idle [seconds]
Set the inactivity timer on the remote server to seconds seconds. If seconds is omitted, the
current inactivity timer is printed.
image Set binary transfer type.
ipv4 Select IPv4 as the only addressing scheme.
ipv6 Select IPv6 as the only addressing scheme.
ipany Allow IPv4 as well as IPv6 addressing.
lcd [directory]
Change the working directory on the local machine. If no directory is specified, the user's
home directory is used.
lpwd Print the name of the current working directory on the local machine.
ls [remote-directory] [local-file]
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 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 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 nlist, except multiple remote files may be specified, and the local-file must 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 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 machine.
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.
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 machine. 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]
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 remote computer 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 replace 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". 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 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. If arguments are specified, 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 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 user@host [port]
Establish a connection to the specified host FTP server. An optional user may be supplied,
by prefixing it to the host followed by an @. 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).
passive Toggle passive mode. If passive mode is turned on (default is off), the ftp client will send
a PASV command for all data connections instead of the usual PORT command. The PASV command
requests that the remote server open a port for the data connection and return the address of
that port. The remote server listens on that port and the client connects to it. When using
the more traditional PORT command, the client listens on a port and sends that address to the
remote server, who connects back to it. Passive mode is useful when using ftp through a
gateway router or host that controls the directionality of traffic. (Note that though ftp
servers are required to support the PASV command by RFC 1123, some do not.)
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 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 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 processing 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 partially 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.
rhelp [command-name]
Request help from the remote FTP server. If a command-name is specified it is supplied to
the server as well.
rstatus [file-name]
With no arguments, show status of remote machine. If file-name is specified, show status of
file-name on remote machine.
rename [from] [to]
Rename the file from on the remote machine, to the file 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.
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.
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 that
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 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 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 TENEX machines.
trace Toggle packet tracing.
type [type-name]
Set the file transfer type to type-name. If no type is specified, the current type is
printed. The default type is network ASCII.
umask [newmask]
Set the default umask on the remote server to newmask. If newmask is omitted, 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 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 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 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
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 argument must be
quoted; e.g. “" 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); 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 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 type may be one of
“ascii”, “image” (binary), “ebcdic”, and “local byte size” (for PDP-10's and PDP-20's mostly). ftp
supports the ascii and image types of file transfer, plus local byte size 8 for tenex mode transfers.
ftp supports only the default values for the remaining file transfer parameters: mode, form, and struct.
ENVIRONMENT
ftp utilizes the following environment variables.
HOME For default location of a .netrc file, if one exists.
NETRC Alternate location of the .netrc file, taking precedence over the standard location.
SHELL For default shell.
SEE ALSO
ftpd(8), netrc(5)
HISTORY
The ftp command appeared in 4.2BSD.
BUGS
Correct execution of many commands depends upon proper behavior by the remote server.
An error in the treatment of carriage returns in the 4.2BSD ascii-mode transfer code has been corrected.
This correction may result in incorrect transfers of binary files to and from 4.2BSD servers using the
ascii type. Avoid this problem by using the binary image type.
GNU Network Utilities February 9, 2019 FTP(1)