FTP(1) BSD Reference Manual FTP(1)NAMEftp - ARPANET file transfer program
SYNOPSISftp [-46AadEegimnptVv] [-c cookie] [-k seconds] [-P port] [-r seconds]
[host [port]]
ftp [-o output] ftp://[user:password@]host[:port]/file[/]
ftp [-o output] http://host[:port]/file
ftp [-o output] https://host[:port]/file
ftp [-o output] host:/file[/]
DESCRIPTIONftp is the user interface to the ARPANET standard File Transfer Protocol
(FTP). The program allows a user to transfer files to and from a remote
network site.
The latter four usage formats will fetch a file using either the FTP,
HTTP, or HTTPS protocols into the current directory. This is ideal for
scripts. Refer to AUTO-FETCHING FILES below for more information.
The options are as follows:
-4 Forces ftp to use IPv4 addresses only.
-6 Forces ftp to use IPv6 addresses only.
-A Force active mode FTP. By default, ftp will try to use passive
mode FTP and fall back to active mode if passive is not supported
by the server. This option causes ftp to always use an active
connection. It is only useful for connecting to very old servers
that do not implement passive mode properly.
-a Causes ftp to bypass the normal login procedure and use an
anonymous login instead.
-c cookie
Load a Netscape-like cookiejar file for HTTP and HTTPS transfers.
With this option relevant cookies from the jar are sent with each
HTTP(S) request. Setting the http_cookies environment variable
has the same effect. If both the http_cookies environment vari-
able is set and the -c argument is given, the latter takes pre-
cedence.
-d Enables debugging.
-E Disables EPSV/EPRT command on IPv4 connections.
-e Disables command line editing. Useful for Emacs ange-ftp.
-g Disables file name globbing.
-i Turns off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers.
-k seconds
Sends a byte after each seconds period over the control connec-
tion during long transfers, so that incorrectly configured net-
work equipment won't agressively drop it. The FTP protocol sup-
ports a NOOP command that can be used for that purpose. This as-
sumes the FTP server can deal with extra commands coming over the
control connection during a transfer. Well-behaved servers queue
those commands, and process them after the transfer.
-m Causes ftp to always display the progress meter in cases where it
would not do so by default.
-n Restrains ftp from attempting "auto-login" upon initial connec-
tion. If auto-login is enabled, ftp will check the .netrc file
(see below) 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 log in.
-o output
When fetching a single file or URL, save the contents in output.
To make the contents go to stdout, use '-' for output.
-P port
Sets the port number to port.
-p Enable passive mode operation for use behind connection filtering
firewalls. This option has been deprecated as ftp now tries to
use passive mode by default, falling back to active mode if the
server does not support passive connections.
-r seconds
Retry to connect if failed, pausing for number of seconds.
-t Enables packet tracing.
-V Disable verbose mode, overriding the default of enabled when in-
put is from a terminal.
-v Enable verbose mode. This is the default if input is from a ter-
minal. Forces ftp to show all responses from the remote server,
as well as report on data transfer statistics.
The 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 con-
nection to an FTP server on that host; otherwise, ftp will enter its com-
mand interpreter and await instructions from the user. When ftp is await-
ing commands, 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.
? [command]
A synonym for help.
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 de-
fault type.
bell Arrange that a bell be sounded after each file transfer com-
mand 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 re-
mote 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 re-
trieval. 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.
debug [debug-value]
Toggle debugging mode. If an optional debug-value is speci-
fied, 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 '-->'.
delete remote-file
Delete the file remote-file on the remote machine.
dir [remote-directory [local-file]]
A synonym for ls.
disconnect A synonym for close.
edit Toggle command line editing, and context sensitive command
and file completion. This is automatically enabled if input
is from a terminal, and disabled otherwise.
epsv4 Toggle use of EPSV/EPRT command on IPv4 connection.
exit A synonym for bye.
form format
Set the file transfer form to format. The default format is
"file".
ftp host [port]
A synonym for open.
gate [host [port]]
Toggle gate-ftp mode. This will not be permitted if the
gate-ftp server hasn't been set (either explicitly by the
user, or from the FTPSERVER environment variable). If host is
given, then gate-ftp mode will be enabled, and the gate-ftp
server will be set to host. If port is also given, that will
be used as the port to connect to on the gate-ftp server.
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 set-
tings 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 directo-
ry subtrees of files. That can be done by transferring a
tar(1) archive of the subtree (in binary mode).
hash [size]
Toggle hash mark ('#') printing for each data block
transferred. The size of a data block defaults to 1024 bytes.
This can be changed by specifying size in bytes.
help [command]
Print an informative message about the meaning of command. If
no argument is given, ftp prints a list of the known com-
mands.
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.
less file A synonym for page.
lpwd Print the 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 informa-
tion that the server chooses to include; for example, most
UNIX systems will produce output from the command 'ls -l'. 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. Macro names can be a max-
imum of 8 characters. Macros are only applicable to the
current session they are defined in (or if defined outside a
session, to the session invoked with the next open command),
and remain defined until a close command is executed. To in-
voke a macro, use the $ command (see above).
The macro processor interprets '$' and '\' as special charac-
ters. A '$' followed by a number (or numbers) is replaced by
the corresponding argument on the macro invocation command
line. A '$' followed by an 'i' tells the macro processor that
the executing macro is to be looped. On the first pass '$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 re-
placed 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
A synonym for mls.
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 pro-
cessed 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 ls, 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.
more file A synonym for page.
mput local-files
Expand wild cards in the list of local files given as argu-
ments 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.
msend local-files
A synonym for mput.
newer file-name
Get the file only if the modification time of the remote file
is more recent than 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 out-
put is sent to the terminal. Note that on some servers, the
nlist command will only return information on normal files
(not directories or special files).
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 re-
mote target filename. If arguments are specified, local
filenames are mapped during mget commands and get commands
issued without a specified local target filename. This com-
mand 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 accom-
plished 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 result-
ing mapped filename. The sequences '$1', '$2', ..., '$9' are
replaced by any value resulting from the inpattern template.
The sequence '$0' is replaced by the original filename. Addi-
tionally, the sequence '[seq1, seq2]' is replaced by seq1 if
seq1 is not a null string; otherwise it is replaced by seq2.
For example:
nmap $1.$2.$3 [$1,$2].[$2,file]
This command 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 in-
put filename .myfile. Spaces may be included in outpattern by
quoting them, as in the following example:
nmap $1.$2 "$1 $2"
Use the '\' character to prevent special treatment of the
'$', '[', ']', and ',' characters.
ntrans [inchars [outchars]]
Set or unset the filename character translation mechanism. If
no arguments are specified, the filename character transla-
tion mechanism is unset. If arguments are specified, charac-
ters 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 com-
mands issued without a specified local target filename. This
command is useful when connecting to a non-UNIX remote com-
puter 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 au-
tomatically log the user in to the FTP server (see below).
page file Retrieve file and display with the program defined in PAGER
(defaulting to more(1) if PAGER is null or not defined).
passive Toggle passive mode. If passive mode is turned on (default is
on), ftp will send a EPSV 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 us-
ing the more traditional PORT command, the client listens on
a port and sends that address to the remote server, who con-
nects back to it. Passive mode is useful when using ftp
through a gateway router or host that controls the direc-
tionality of traffic. (Note that though FTP servers are re-
quired to support the PASV command by RFC 1123, some do not.)
preserve Toggle preservation of modification times on retrieved files.
progress Toggle display of transfer progress bar. The progress bar
will be disabled for a transfer that has local-file as '-' or
a command that starts with '|'. Refer to FILE NAMING
CONVENTIONS for more information.
prompt Toggle interactive prompting. Interactive prompting occurs
during multiple file transfers to allow the user to selec-
tively 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.
When prompting is on, the following commands are available at
a prompt:
a Answer "yes" to the current file and automatically
answer "yes" to any remaining files for the current
command.
n Do not transfer the file.
p Answer "yes" to the current file and turn off
prompt mode (as if "prompt off" had been given).
y Transfer the file.
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 connec-
tion. 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 defini-
tions; get and mget transfer files from the host on the pri-
mary 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 process-
ing 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 par-
tially 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.
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.
rhelp [command-name]
Request help from the remote FTP server. If a command-name is
specified, it is supplied to the server as well.
rmdir directory-name
Delete a directory on the remote machine.
rstatus [file-name]
With no arguments, show status of remote machine. If file-
name is specified, show status of file-name on 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 cer-
tain 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.
sunique Toggle storing of files on remote machine under unique file
names. The remote FTP server must support the FTP protocol
STOU command for successful completion. The remote server
will report the 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 speci-
fied, the current type is printed. The default type is
"binary".
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 speci-
fied, 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, ver-
bose is on.
Command arguments which have embedded spaces may be quoted with quote
('"') marks.
Commands which toggle settings can take an explicit on or off argument to
force the setting appropriately.
If ftp receives a SIGINFO (see the "status" argument of stty(1)) signal
whilst a transfer is in progress, the current transfer rate statistics
will be written to the standard error output, in the same format as the
standard completion message.
AUTO-FETCHING FILES
In addition to standard commands, this version of ftp supports an auto-
fetch feature. To enable auto-fetch, simply pass the list of
hostnames/files on the command line.
The following formats are valid syntax for an auto-fetch element:
host:/file[/]
"Classic" ftp format.
ftp://[user:password@]host[:port]/file[/]
An FTP URL, retrieved using the FTP protocol if ftp_proxy isn't
defined. Otherwise, transfer using HTTP via the proxy defined in
ftp_proxy. If user:password@ is given and ftp_proxy isn't de-
fined, log in as user with a password of password.
http://host[:port]/file
An HTTP URL, retrieved using the HTTP protocol. If http_proxy is
defined, it is used as a URL to an HTTP proxy server.
https://host[:port]/file
An HTTPS URL, retrieved using the HTTPS protocol. If http_proxy
is defined, this HTTPS proxy server will be used to fetch the
file using the CONNECT method.
If a classic format or an FTP URL format has a trailing '/', then ftp
will connect to the site and cd to the directory given as the path, and
leave the user in interactive mode ready for further input.
If successive auto-fetch FTP elements refer to the same host, then the
connection is maintained between transfers, reducing overhead on connec-
tion creation and deletion.
If file contains a glob character and globbing is enabled (see glob),
then the equivalent of mget file is performed.
If no -o option is specified, and the directory component of file con-
tains no globbing characters, then it is stored in the current directory
as the basename(1) of file. If -o output is specified, then file is
stored as output. Otherwise, the remote name is used as the local name.
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 an 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 pro-
cessing. If the remote server does not support the ABOR command, an
'ftp>' prompt will not appear until the remote server has completed send-
ing the requested file.
The terminal interrupt key sequence will be ignored when ftp has complet-
ed 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 viola-
tions 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 standard input (for reading)
or standard output (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 standard output (standard input). 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 al-
tered 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 al-
tered 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", "binary", "image", "ebcdic"
(currently not supported) or "tenex" (local byte size 8, 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 follow-
ing 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 us-
ing 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 com-
mand if it does not.
macdef name
Define a macro. This token functions like the ftp macdef com-
mand 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.
Like the other tokens in the .netrc file, a macdef is applica-
ble only to the machine definition preceding it. A macdef entry
cannot be utilized by multiple machine definitions; rather, it
must be defined following each machine it is intended to be
used with. If a macro named init is defined, it is automatical-
ly executed as the last step in the auto-login process.
COMMAND LINE EDITINGftp supports interactive command line editing, via the editline(3) li-
brary. It is enabled with the edit command, and is enabled by default if
input is from a tty. Previous lines can be recalled and edited with the
arrow keys, and other GNU Emacs-style editing keys may be used as well.
The editline(3) library is configured with a .editrc file - refer to
editrc(5) for more information.
An extra key binding is available to ftp to provide context sensitive
command and filename completion (including remote file completion). To
use this, bind a key to the editline(3) command ftp-complete. By default,
this is bound to the TAB key.
ENVIRONMENTftp utilizes the following environment variables:
FTPMODE Overrides the default operation mode. Recognized values
are:
passive passive mode FTP only
active active mode FTP only
auto automatic determination of passive or ac-
tive (this is the default)
gate gate-ftp mode
FTPSERVER Host to use as gate-ftp server when gate is enabled.
FTPSERVERPORT Port to use when connecting to gate-ftp server when gate
is enabled. Default is port returned by a getservbyname()
lookup of "ftpgate/tcp".
HOME For default location of a .netrc file, if one exists.
PAGER Used by page to display files.
SHELL For default shell.
TMPDIR Directory to put temporary files.
ftp_proxy URL of FTP proxy to use when making FTP URL requests (if
not defined, use the standard FTP protocol).
http_proxy URL of HTTP proxy to use when making HTTP or HTTPS URL re-
quests.
http_cookies Path of a Netscape-like cookiejar file to use when making
HTTP or HTTPS URL requests.
PORT ALLOCATION
For active mode data connections, ftp will listen to a random high TCP
port. The interval of ports used are configurable using sysctl(8) vari-
ables net.inet.ip.porthifirst and net.inet.ip.porthilast.
SEE ALSObasename(1), csh(1), more(1), stty(1), tar(1), tftp(1), editline(3),
getservbyname(3), popen(3), editrc(5), services(5), ftp-proxy(8), ftpd(8)HISTORY
The ftp command appeared in 4.2BSD. The -E option exists since MirOS #8.
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.
MirOS BSD #10-current July 15, 2007 12
