Provided by: inetutils-ftp_1.9.2-1_amd64 bug

NAME

     ftp — ARPANET file transfer program

SYNOPSIS

     ftp [-v] [-d] [-i] [-n] [-g] [host]

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.

     Options may be specified at the command line, or to the command interpreter.

     -v    Verbose option forces ftp to show all responses from the remote server, as well as
           report on data transfer statistics.

     -n    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    Turns off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers.

     -d    Enables debugging.

     -g    Disables file name globbing.

     The client host 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.

     form format
                 Set the file transfer form to format.  The default format is “file”.

     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.

     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 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 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).

     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.

     remotehelp [command-name]
                 Request help from the remote FTP server.  If a command-name is specified it is
                 supplied to the server as well.

     remotestatus [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.

THE .netrc FILE

     The .netrc file contains login and initialization information used by the auto-login
     process.  It resides in the user's home directory.  The following tokens are recognized;
     they may be separated by spaces, tabs, or new-lines:

     machine name
               Identify a remote machine name.  The auto-login process searches the .netrc file
               for a machine token that matches the remote machine specified on the ftp command
               line or as an open command argument.  Once a match is made, the subsequent .netrc
               tokens are processed, stopping when the end of file is reached or another machine
               or a default token is encountered.

     default   This is the same as machine name except that default matches any name.  There can
               be only one default token, and it must be after all machine tokens.  This is
               normally used as:

                     default login anonymous password user@site

               thereby giving the user automatic anonymous ftp login to machines not specified in
               .netrc.  This can be overridden by using the -n flag to disable auto-login.

     login name
               Identify a user on the remote machine.  If this token is present, the auto-login
               process will initiate a login using the specified name.

     password string
               Supply a password.  If this token is present, the auto-login process will supply
               the specified string if the remote server requires a password as part of the login
               process.  Note that if this token is present in the .netrc file for any user other
               than anonymous, ftp will abort the auto-login process if the .netrc is readable by
               anyone besides the user.

     account string
               Supply an additional account password.  If this token is present, the auto-login
               process will supply the specified string if the remote server requires an
               additional account password, or the auto-login process will initiate an ACCT
               command if it does not.

     macdef name
               Define a macro.  This token functions like the ftp macdef command functions.  A
               macro is defined with the specified name; its contents begin with the next .netrc
               line and continue until a null line (consecutive new-line characters) is
               encountered.  If a macro named init is defined, it is automatically executed as
               the last step in the auto-login process.

ENVIRONMENT

     Ftp utilizes the following environment variables.

     HOME        For default location of a .netrc file, if one exists.

     SHELL       For default shell.

SEE ALSO

     ftpd(8)

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.