SFTP(1) BSD General Commands Manual SFTP(1)
NAME
sftp — secure file transfer program
SYNOPSIS
sftp [-1246aCfpqrv] [-B buffer_size] [-b batchfile] [-c cipher] [-D sftp_server_path] [-F ssh_config]
[-i identity_file] [-l limit] [-o ssh_option] [-P port] [-R num_requests] [-S program]
[-s subsystem | sftp_server] host
sftp [user@]host[:file ...]
sftp [user@]host[:dir[/]]
sftp -b batchfile [user@]host
DESCRIPTION
sftp is an interactive 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 compression.
sftp connects and logs into the specified host, then enters an interactive command mode.
The second usage format will retrieve files automatically if a non-interactive authentication method is used;
otherwise it will do so after successful interactive authentication.
The third usage format allows sftp to start in a remote directory.
The final usage format allows for automated sessions using the -b option. In such cases, it is necessary to
configure non-interactive authentication to obviate the need to enter a password at connection time (see sshd(8)
and ssh-keygen(1) for details).
Since some usage formats use colon characters to delimit host names from path names, IPv6 addresses must be
enclosed in square brackets to avoid ambiguity.
The options are as follows:
-1 Specify the use of protocol version 1.
-2 Specify the use of protocol version 2.
-4 Forces sftp to use IPv4 addresses only.
-6 Forces sftp to use IPv6 addresses only.
-a Attempt to continue interrupted downloads rather than overwriting existing partial or complete copies of
files. If the remote file contents differ from the partial local copy then the resultant file is likely
to be corrupt.
-B buffer_size
Specify the size of the buffer that sftp uses when transferring 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. A batchfile of ‘-’
may be used to indicate standard input. sftp will abort if any of the following commands fail: get,
put, reget, 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 command basis by prefixing the command
with a ‘-’ character (for example, -rm /tmp/blah*).
-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).
-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).
-l limit
Limits the used bandwidth, specified in Kbit/s.
-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 possible values, see
ssh_config(5).
AddressFamily
BatchMode
BindAddress
CanonicalDomains
CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
CanonicalizeHostname
CanonicalizeMaxDots
CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
ChallengeResponseAuthentication
CheckHostIP
Cipher
Ciphers
Compression
CompressionLevel
ConnectionAttempts
ConnectTimeout
ControlMaster
ControlPath
ControlPersist
GlobalKnownHostsFile
GSSAPIAuthentication
GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
HashKnownHosts
Host
HostbasedAuthentication
HostKeyAlgorithms
HostKeyAlias
HostName
IdentityFile
IdentitiesOnly
IPQoS
KbdInteractiveAuthentication
KbdInteractiveDevices
KexAlgorithms
LogLevel
MACs
NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
NumberOfPasswordPrompts
PasswordAuthentication
PKCS11Provider
Port
UsePrivilegedPort
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 downloading. Note that sftp does not follow sym‐
bolic 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 for
using sftp over protocol version 1, or when the remote sshd(8) does not have an sftp subsystem config‐
ured.
-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.
chgrp grp path
Change group of file path to grp. path may contain glob(3) characters and may match multiple files.
grp must be a numeric GID.
chmod mode path
Change permissions of file path to mode. path may contain glob(3) characters and may match multiple
files.
chown own path
Change owner of file path to own. path may contain glob(3) 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.
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 either the -P or -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.
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(3) 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 contain glob(3) 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 suffixes: Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Ter‐
abyte, Petabyte, and Exabyte in order to reduce the number of digits to four or fewer using pow‐
ers 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 information 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.
given the same name it has on the local machine. local-path may contain glob(3) characters and may
match multiple files. If it does and remote-path is specified, then remote-path must specify a direc‐
tory.
If the -f flag is specified, then a request will be sent to the server to call fsync(2) after the file
has been transferred. Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
"[email protected]" extension.
If either the -P or -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 [-Ppr] remote-path [local-path]
Resume download of remote-path. Equivalent to get 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), glob(3), ssh_config(5), 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 June 13, 2017 BSD
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