FTP(1C-SysV) RISC/os Reference Manual FTP(1C-SysV)
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.
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 pro-
vided 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.
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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 dur-
ing 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.
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 com-
mand 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 no directory
is specified, the current working directory on the
remote machine is used. If no local file is
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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 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 directory subtrees of
files. That can be done by transferring a tar(1)
archive of the subtree (in binary mode).
hash Toggle hash-sign (``#'') printing for each data
block transferred. The size of a data block is
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.
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 an abbreviated listing of the contents of a
directory on the remote machine. If remote-
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directory is left unspecified, the current working
directory is used. 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 char-
acters 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 '$' fol-
lowed by an 'i' signals that macro processor that
the executing macro is to be looped. On the first
pass '$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 argu-
ment 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 ls, except multiple remote files may be
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specified. If interactive prompting is on, ftp
will prompt the user to verify that the last argu-
ment 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.
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 pro-
cessed according to ntrans and nmap settings.
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 con-
necting to a non-UNIX remote computer with dif-
ferent 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). Vari-
able 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 exmaple, 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 outpat-
tern determines the resulting mapped filename.
The sequences '$1', '$2', ...., '$9' are replaced
by any value resulting from the inpattern tem-
plate. The sequence '$0' is replaced by the ori-
ginal 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
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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 dur-
ing 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 automati-
cally log the user in to the FTP server (see
below).
prompt Toggle interactive prompting. Interactive prompt-
ing 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 con-
nection. This command allows simultaneous connec-
tion to two remote ftp servers for transferring
files between the two servers. The first proxy
command should be an open, to establish the secon-
dary control connection. Enter the command "proxy
?" to see other ftp commands executable on the
secondary connection. The following commands
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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 con-
trol 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.
remotehelp [ command-name ]
Request help from the remote FTP server. If a
command-name is specified it is supplied to the
server as well.
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 neccesary fol-
lowing a violation of the ftp protocol by the
remote server.
rmdir directory-name
Delete a directory on the remote machine.
runique Toggle storing of files on the local system with
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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 mes-
sage 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 establish-
ing a connection for each data transfer. The use
of PORT commands can prevent delays when perform-
ing 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 imple-
mentations which do ignore PORT commands but,
incorrectly, indicate they've been accepted.
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 comple-
tion. The remote server will report unique name.
Default value is off.
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.
user user-name [ password ] [ account ]
Identify yourself to the remote FTP server. If
the password is not specified and the server
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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 effi-
ciency 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 viola-
tions of the ftp protocol. If the delay results from unex-
pected 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 read-
ing) or stdout (for writing) is used.
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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(3S) 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 par-
ticularly 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" opera-
tion 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 set-
ting. 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.
OPTIONS
Options may be specified at the command line, or to the com-
mand interpreter.
The -v (verbose on) option forces ftp to show all responses
from the remote server, as well as report on data transfer
statistics.
The -n option 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 direc-
tory for an entry describing an account on the remote
machine. If no entry exists, ftp will prompt for the remote
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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.
The -i option turns off interactive prompting during multi-
ple file transfers.
The -d option enables debugging.
The -g option disables file name globbing.
THE .netrc FILE
The .netrc file contains login and initialization informa-
tion 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 argu-
ment. Once a match is made, the subsequent .netrc
tokens are processed, stopping when the end of
file is reached or another machine token is
encountered.
login name
Identify a user on the remote machine. If this
token is present, the auto-login process will ini-
tiate 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, 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 sup-
ply 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
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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 automati-
cally executed as the last step in the auto-login
process.
ERRORS
Correct execution of many commands depends upon proper
behavior by the remote server.
An error in the treatment of carriage returns in the 4.2 BSD
UNIX ASCII-mode transfer code has been corrected. This
correction may result in incorrect transfers of binary files
to and from 4.2 BSD servers using the ASCII type. Avoid
this problem by using the binary image type.
ORIGIN
4.3 BSD
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