SFTP(1) User Commands SFTP(1)
NAME
sftp - OpenSSH secure file transfer
SYNOPSIS
sftp [
-46AaCfNpqrv] [
-B buffer_size] [
-b batchfile] [
-c cipher]
[
-D sftp_server_command] [
-F ssh_config] [
-i identity_file]
[
-J destination] [
-l limit] [
-o ssh_option] [
-P port]
[
-R num_requests] [
-S program] [
-s subsystem |
sftp_server]
[
-X sftp_option]
destinationDESCRIPTION
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 compression.
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 authentication method is
used; otherwise it will do so after successful interactive 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 Allows forwarding of
ssh-agent(1) to the remote system. The
default is not to forward an authentication agent.
-a Attempt to continue interrupted transfers rather than overwriting
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 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 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,
copy,
cp,
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*). 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_command Connect directly to a local sftp server (rather than via
ssh(1)).
A command and arguments may be specified, for example
"/path/sftp-server -el debug3". 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 connection 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 possible values, see
ssh_config(5).
AddressFamily
BatchMode
BindAddress
BindInterface
CanonicalDomains
CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
CanonicalizeHostname
CanonicalizeMaxDots
CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
CASignatureAlgorithms
CertificateFile
CheckHostIP
Ciphers
Compression
ConnectionAttempts
ConnectTimeout
ControlMaster
ControlPath
ControlPersist
GlobalKnownHostsFile
GSSAPIAuthentication
GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
HashKnownHosts
Host
HostbasedAcceptedAlgorithms
HostbasedAuthentication
HostKeyAlgorithms
HostKeyAlias
Hostname
IdentitiesOnly
IdentityAgent
IdentityFile
IPQoS
KbdInteractiveAuthentication
KbdInteractiveDevices
KexAlgorithms
KnownHostsCommand
LogLevel
MACs
NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
NumberOfPasswordPrompts
PasswordAuthentication
PKCS11Provider
Port
PreferredAuthentications
ProxyCommand
ProxyJump
PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms
PubkeyAuthentication
RekeyLimit
RequiredRSASize
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 downloading.
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.
-X sftp_option Specify an option that controls aspects of SFTP protocol behaviour.
The valid options are:
nrequests=
value Controls how many concurrent SFTP read or write requests
may be in progress at any point in time during a download
or upload. By default 64 requests may be active
concurrently.
buffer=
value Controls the maximum buffer size for a single SFTP
read/write operation used during download or upload. By
default a 32KB buffer is used.
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.
path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
grp must be a numeric
GID.
If the
-h flag is specified, then symlinks will not be followed.
Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
"lsetstat@openssh.com" extension.
chmod [
-h]
mode path Change permissions of file
path to
mode.
path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
If the
-h flag is specified, then symlinks will not be followed.
Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
"lsetstat@openssh.com" extension.
chown [
-h]
own path Change owner of file
path to
own.
path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
own must be a numeric
UID.
If the
-h flag is specified, then symlinks will not be followed.
Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
"lsetstat@openssh.com" extension.
copy oldpath newpath Copy remote file from
oldpath to
newpath.
Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
"copy-data" extension.
cp oldpath newpath Alias to
copy command.
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 contain
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 suffixes:
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 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.
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 transferred. 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.
illumos December 16, 2022 illumos