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SFTP(1) BSD General Commands Manual SFTP(1)
NAME
sftp — OpenSSH secure file transfer
SYNOPSIS
sftp [-46aCfNpqrv] [-B buffer_size] [-b batchfile] [-c cipher]
[-D sftp_server_path] [-F ssh_config] [-i identity_file]
[-J destination] [-l limit] [-o ssh_option] [-P port]
[-R num_requests] [-S program] [-s subsystem | sftp_server]
destination
DESCRIPTION
sftp is a file transfer program, similar to ftp(1), which performs
all operations over an encrypted ssh(1) transport. It may also use
many features of ssh, such as public key authentication and compres‐
sion.
The destination may be specified either as [user@]host[:path] or as
a URI in the form sftp://[user@]host[:port][/path].
If the destination includes a path and it is not a directory, sftp
will retrieve files automatically if a non-interactive authentica‐
tion method is used; otherwise it will do so after successful inter‐
active authentication.
If no path is specified, or if the path is a directory, sftp will
log in to the specified host and enter interactive command mode,
changing to the remote directory if one was specified. An optional
trailing slash can be used to force the path to be interpreted as a
directory.
Since the destination formats use colon characters to delimit host
names from path names or port numbers, IPv6 addresses must be
enclosed in square brackets to avoid ambiguity.
The options are as follows:
-4 Forces sftp to use IPv4 addresses only.
-6 Forces sftp to use IPv6 addresses only.
-a Attempt to continue interrupted transfers rather than over‐
writing existing partial or complete copies of files. If
the partial contents differ from those being transferred,
then the resultant file is likely to be corrupt.
-B buffer_size
Specify the size of the buffer that sftp uses when transfer‐
ring files. Larger buffers require fewer round trips at the
cost of higher memory consumption. The default is 32768
bytes.
-b batchfile
Batch mode reads a series of commands from an input
batchfile instead of stdin. Since it lacks user interaction
it should be used in conjunction with non-interactive
authentication to obviate the need to enter a password at
connection time (see sshd(8) and ssh-keygen(1) for details).
A batchfile of ‘-’ may be used to indicate standard input.
sftp will abort if any of the following commands fail: get,
put, reget, reput, rename, ln, rm, mkdir, chdir, ls, lchdir,
chmod, chown, chgrp, lpwd, df, symlink, and lmkdir.
Termination on error can be suppressed on a command by com‐
mand basis by prefixing the command with a ‘-’ character
(for example, -rm /tmp/blah*). Echo of the command may be
suppressed by prefixing the command with a ‘@’ character.
These two prefixes may be combined in any order, for example
-@ls /bsd.
-C Enables compression (via ssh's -C flag).
-c cipher
Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfers.
This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
-D sftp_server_path
Connect directly to a local sftp server (rather than via
ssh(1)). This option may be useful in debugging the client
and server.
-F ssh_config
Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for
ssh(1). This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
-f Requests that files be flushed to disk immediately after
transfer. When uploading files, this feature is only
enabled if the server implements the "fsync@openssh.com"
extension.
-i identity_file
Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for
public key authentication is read. This option is directly
passed to ssh(1).
-J destination
Connect to the target host by first making an sftp connec‐
tion to the jump host described by destination and then
establishing a TCP forwarding to the ultimate destination
from there. Multiple jump hops may be specified separated
by comma characters. This is a shortcut to specify a
ProxyJump configuration directive. This option is directly
passed to ssh(1).
-l limit
Limits the used bandwidth, specified in Kbit/s.
-N Disables quiet mode, e.g. to override the implicit quiet
mode set by the -b flag.
-o ssh_option
Can be used to pass options to ssh in the format used in
ssh_config(5). This is useful for specifying options for
which there is no separate sftp command-line flag. For
example, to specify an alternate port use: sftp -oPort=24.
For full details of the options listed below, and their pos‐
sible values, see ssh_config(5).
AddressFamily
BatchMode
BindAddress
BindInterface
CanonicalDomains
CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
CanonicalizeHostname
CanonicalizeMaxDots
CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
CASignatureAlgorithms
CertificateFile
ChallengeResponseAuthentication
CheckHostIP
Ciphers
Compression
ConnectionAttempts
ConnectTimeout
ControlMaster
ControlPath
ControlPersist
GlobalKnownHostsFile
GSSAPIAuthentication
GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
HashKnownHosts
Host
HostbasedAuthentication
HostbasedKeyTypes
HostKeyAlgorithms
HostKeyAlias
Hostname
IdentitiesOnly
IdentityAgent
IdentityFile
IPQoS
KbdInteractiveAuthentication
KbdInteractiveDevices
KexAlgorithms
LogLevel
MACs
NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
NumberOfPasswordPrompts
PasswordAuthentication
PKCS11Provider
Port
PreferredAuthentications
ProxyCommand
ProxyJump
PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes
PubkeyAuthentication
RekeyLimit
SendEnv
ServerAliveInterval
ServerAliveCountMax
SetEnv
StrictHostKeyChecking
TCPKeepAlive
UpdateHostKeys
User
UserKnownHostsFile
VerifyHostKeyDNS
-P port
Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host.
-p Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from
the original files transferred.
-q Quiet mode: disables the progress meter as well as warning
and diagnostic messages from ssh(1).
-R num_requests
Specify how many requests may be outstanding at any one
time. Increasing this may slightly improve file transfer
speed but will increase memory usage. The default is 64
outstanding requests.
-r Recursively copy entire directories when uploading and down‐
loading. Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links
encountered in the tree traversal.
-S program
Name of the program to use for the encrypted connection.
The program must understand ssh(1) options.
-s subsystem | sftp_server
Specifies the SSH2 subsystem or the path for an sftp server
on the remote host. A path is useful when the remote
sshd(8) does not have an sftp subsystem configured.
-v Raise logging level. This option is also passed to ssh.
INTERACTIVE COMMANDS
Once in interactive mode, sftp understands a set of commands similar
to those of ftp(1). Commands are case insensitive. Pathnames that
contain spaces must be enclosed in quotes. Any special characters
contained within pathnames that are recognized by glob(3) must be
escaped with backslashes (‘\’).
bye Quit sftp.
cd [path]
Change remote directory to path. If path is not specified,
then change directory to the one the session started in.
chgrp [-h] grp path
Change group of file path to grp. If the -h flag is speci‐
fied, then symlinks will not be followed. path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple files. grp must
be a numeric GID.
chmod [-h] mode path
Change permissions of file path to mode. If the -h flag is
specified, then symlinks will not be followed. path may
contain glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
chown [-h] own path
Change owner of file path to own. If the -h flag is speci‐
fied, then symlinks will not be followed. path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple files. own must
be a numeric UID.
df [-hi] [path]
Display usage information for the filesystem holding the
current directory (or path if specified). If the -h flag is
specified, the capacity information will be displayed using
"human-readable" suffixes. The -i flag requests display of
inode information in addition to capacity information. This
command is only supported on servers that implement the
“statvfs@openssh.com” extension.
exit Quit sftp.
get [-afpR] remote-path [local-path]
Retrieve the remote-path and store it on the local machine.
If the local path name is not specified, it is given the
same name it has on the remote machine. remote-path may
contain glob(7) characters and may match multiple files. If
it does and local-path is specified, then local-path must
specify a directory.
If the -a flag is specified, then attempt to resume partial
transfers of existing files. Note that resumption assumes
that any partial copy of the local file matches the remote
copy. If the remote file contents differ from the partial
local copy then the resultant file is likely to be corrupt.
If the -f flag is specified, then fsync(2) will be called
after the file transfer has completed to flush the file to
disk.
If the -p flag is specified, then full file permissions and
access times are copied too.
If the -R flag is specified then directories will be copied
recursively. Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links
when performing recursive transfers.
help Display help text.
lcd [path]
Change local directory to path. If path is not specified,
then change directory to the local user's home directory.
lls [ls-options [path]]
Display local directory listing of either path or current
directory if path is not specified. ls-options may contain
any flags supported by the local system's ls(1) command.
path may contain glob(7) characters and may match multiple
files.
lmkdir path
Create local directory specified by path.
ln [-s] oldpath newpath
Create a link from oldpath to newpath. If the -s flag is
specified the created link is a symbolic link, otherwise it
is a hard link.
lpwd Print local working directory.
ls [-1afhlnrSt] [path]
Display a remote directory listing of either path or the
current directory if path is not specified. path may con‐
tain glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
The following flags are recognized and alter the behaviour
of ls accordingly:
-1 Produce single columnar output.
-a List files beginning with a dot (‘.’).
-f Do not sort the listing. The default sort order is
lexicographical.
-h When used with a long format option, use unit suf‐
fixes: Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte,
Petabyte, and Exabyte in order to reduce the number
of digits to four or fewer using powers of 2 for
sizes (K=1024, M=1048576, etc.).
-l Display additional details including permissions and
ownership information.
-n Produce a long listing with user and group informa‐
tion presented numerically.
-r Reverse the sort order of the listing.
-S Sort the listing by file size.
-t Sort the listing by last modification time.
lumask umask
Set local umask to umask.
mkdir path
Create remote directory specified by path.
progress
Toggle display of progress meter.
put [-afpR] local-path [remote-path]
Upload local-path and store it on the remote machine. If
the remote path name is not specified, it is given the same
name it has on the local machine. local-path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple files. If it does
and remote-path is specified, then remote-path must specify
a directory.
If the -a flag is specified, then attempt to resume partial
transfers of existing files. Note that resumption assumes
that any partial copy of the remote file matches the local
copy. If the local file contents differ from the remote
local copy then the resultant file is likely to be corrupt.
If the -f flag is specified, then a request will be sent to
the server to call fsync(2) after the file has been trans‐
ferred. Note that this is only supported by servers that
implement the "fsync@openssh.com" extension.
If the -p flag is specified, then full file permissions and
access times are copied too.
If the -R flag is specified then directories will be copied
recursively. Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links
when performing recursive transfers.
pwd Display remote working directory.
quit Quit sftp.
reget [-fpR] remote-path [local-path]
Resume download of remote-path. Equivalent to get with the
-a flag set.
reput [-fpR] local-path [remote-path]
Resume upload of local-path. Equivalent to put with the -a
flag set.
rename oldpath newpath
Rename remote file from oldpath to newpath.
rm path
Delete remote file specified by path.
rmdir path
Remove remote directory specified by path.
symlink oldpath newpath
Create a symbolic link from oldpath to newpath.
version
Display the sftp protocol version.
!command
Execute command in local shell.
! Escape to local shell.
? Synonym for help.
SEE ALSO
ftp(1), ls(1), scp(1), ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-keygen(1),
ssh_config(5), glob(7), sftp-server(8), sshd(8)
T. Ylonen and S. Lehtinen, SSH File Transfer Protocol, draft-ietf-
secsh-filexfer-00.txt, January 2001, work in progress material.
BSD April 23, 2020 BSD