Sortix cross-nightly manual

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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] 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 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).

-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:

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 (‘\’).

Sortix cross-nightly manual

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

INTERACTIVE COMMANDS

SEE ALSO