# sftp - OpenSSH secure file transfer - man(1) - [phpMan] > **TLDR:** Secure File Transfer Program. > - Connect to a remote server and enter an interactive command mode: `sftp {{remote_user}}@{{remote_host}}` - Connect using an alternate port: `sftp -P {{remote_port}} {{remote_user}}@{{remote_host}}` - Connect using a predefined host (in `~/.ssh/config`): `sftp {{host}}` - [Interactive] Transfer remote file to the local system: `get {{path/to/remote_file}}` - [Interactive] Transfer local file to the remote system: `put {{path/to/local_file}}` - [Interactive] Transfer remote directory to the local system recursively (works with `put` too): `get -R {{path/to/remote_directory}}` - [Interactive] Get list of files on local machine: `lls` - [Interactive] Get a list of files on the remote machine: `ls` *Source: tldr-pages* --- [_SFTP_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SFTP/1/markdown) General Commands Manual [_SFTP_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SFTP/1/markdown) ## 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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ftp/1/markdown), which performs all operations over an en‐ crypted [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown) transport. It may also use many features of ssh, such as public key authenti‐ cation 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 auto‐ matically 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 speci‐ fied. An optional trailing slash can be used to force the _path_ to be interpreted as a direc‐ tory. 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 ### -6 ### -A ward an authentication agent. ### -a complete copies of files. If the partial contents differ from those being trans‐ ferred, then the resultant file is likely to be corrupt. ### -B _ 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 de‐ fault is 32768 bytes. ### -b _ 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-interac‐ tive authentication to obviate the need to enter a password at connection time (see [_sshd_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sshd/8/markdown) and [_ssh-keygen_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh-keygen/1/markdown) 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 -C ### -c _ Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfers. This option is directly passed to [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). ### -D _ Connect directly to a local sftp server (rather than via [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown)). A command and ar‐ guments may be specified, for example "/path/sftp-server -el debug3". This option may be useful in debugging the client and server. ### -F _ Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). This option is di‐ rectly passed to [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). ### -f files, this feature is only enabled if the server implements the "" extension. ### -i _ Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for public key authentication is read. This option is directly passed to [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). ### -J _ Connect to the target host by first making an **sftp **connection to the jump host de‐ scribed by _destination_ and then establishing a TCP forwarding to the ultimate desti‐ nation from there. Multiple jump hops may be specified separated by comma charac‐ ters. This is a shortcut to specify a **ProxyJump **configuration directive. This op‐ tion is directly passed to [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). ### -l _ Limits the used bandwidth, specified in Kbit/s. ### -N -b ### -o _ Can be used to pass options to **ssh **in the format used in [_ssh_config_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sshconfig/5/markdown). This is use‐ ful 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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sshconfig/5/markdown). AddressFamily BatchMode BindAddress BindInterface CanonicalDomains CanonicalizeFallbackLocal CanonicalizeHostname CanonicalizeMaxDots CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs CASignatureAlgorithms CertificateFile CheckHostIP Ciphers Compression ConnectionAttempts ConnectTimeout ControlMaster ControlPath ControlPersist GlobalKnownHostsFile GSSAPIAuthentication GSSAPIDelegateCredentials HashKnownHosts Host HostbasedAcceptedAlgorithms HostbasedAuthentication HostKeyAlgorithms HostKeyAlias Hostname IdentitiesOnly IdentityAgent IdentityFile IPQoS KbdInteractiveAuthentication KbdInteractiveDevices KexAlgorithms KnownHostsCommand LogLevel MACs NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost NumberOfPasswordPrompts PasswordAuthentication PKCS11Provider Port PreferredAuthentications ProxyCommand ProxyJump PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms PubkeyAuthentication RekeyLimit RequiredRSASize SendEnv ServerAliveInterval ServerAliveCountMax SetEnv StrictHostKeyChecking TCPKeepAlive UpdateHostKeys User UserKnownHostsFile VerifyHostKeyDNS ### -P _ Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host. ### -p ferred. ### -q from [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown). ### -R _ 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 does not follow symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal. ### -S _ Name of the _program_ to use for the encrypted connection. The program must understand [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown) options. ### -s _ Specifies the SSH2 subsystem or the path for an sftp server on the remote host. A path is useful when the remote [_sshd_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sshd/8/markdown) does not have an sftp subsystem configured. ### -v ### -X _ Specify an option that controls aspects of SFTP protocol behaviour. The valid op‐ tions are: **nrequests**=_value_ Controls how many concurrent SFTP read or write requests may be in progress at any point in time during a download or upload. By default 64 requests may be active concurrently. **buffer**=_value_ Controls the maximum buffer size for a single SFTP read/write operation used during download or upload. By default a 32KB buffer is used. ## INTERACTIVE COMMANDS Once in interactive mode, **sftp **understands a set of commands similar to those of [_ftp_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ftp/1/markdown). 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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/glob/3/markdown) must be es‐ caped with backslashes (‘\’). **bye **Quit **sftp**. **cd **[_path_] Change remote directory to _path_. If _path_ is not specified, then change directory to the one the session started in. **chgrp **[**-h**] _grp_ _path_ Change group of file _path_ to _grp_. _path_ may contain [_glob_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/glob/7/markdown) characters and may match multiple files. _grp_ must be a numeric GID. If the **-h **flag is specified, then symlinks will not be followed. Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the "" extension. **chmod **[**-h**] _mode_ _path_ Change permissions of file _path_ to _mode_. _path_ may contain [_glob_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/glob/7/markdown) characters and may match multiple files. If the **-h **flag is specified, then symlinks will not be followed. Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the "" extension. **chown **[**-h**] _own_ _path_ Change owner of file _path_ to _own_. _path_ may contain [_glob_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/glob/7/markdown) characters and may match multiple files. _own_ must be a numeric UID. If the **-h **flag is specified, then symlinks will not be followed. Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the "" extension. **copy _**oldpath_ _newpath_ Copy remote file from _oldpath_ to _newpath_. Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the "copy-data" extension. **cp _**oldpath_ _newpath_ Alias to **copy **command. **df **[**-hi**] [_path_] Display usage information for the filesystem holding the current directory (or _path_ if specified). If the **-h **flag is specified, the capacity information will be dis‐ played using "human-readable" suffixes. The **-i **flag requests display of inode infor‐ mation in addition to capacity information. This command is only supported on servers that implement the “” extension. **exit **Quit **sftp**. **get **[**-afpR**] _remote-path_ [_local-path_] Retrieve the _remote-path_ and store it on the local machine. If the local path name is not specified, it is given the same name it has on the remote machine. _remote-path_ may contain [_glob_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/glob/7/markdown) characters and may match multiple files. If it does and _local-path_ is specified, then _local-path_ must specify a directory. If the **-a **flag is specified, then attempt to resume partial transfers of existing files. Note that resumption assumes that any partial copy of the local file matches the remote copy. If the remote file contents differ from the partial local copy then the resultant file is likely to be corrupt. If the **-f **flag is specified, then [_fsync_(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fsync/2/markdown) will be called after the file transfer has completed to flush the file to disk. If the **-p **flag is specified, then full file permissions and access times are copied too. If the **-R **flag is specified then directories will be copied recursively. Note that **sftp **does not follow symbolic links when performing recursive transfers. **help **Display help text. **lcd **[_path_] Change local directory to _path_. If _path_ is not specified, then change directory to the local user's home directory. **lls **[_ls-options_ [_path_]] Display local directory listing of either _path_ or current directory if _path_ is not specified. _ls-options_ may contain any flags supported by the local system's [_ls_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ls/1/markdown) command. _path_ may contain [_glob_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/glob/7/markdown) characters and may match multiple files. **lmkdir _**path_ Create local directory specified by _path_. **ln **[**-s**] _oldpath_ _newpath_ Create a link from _oldpath_ to _newpath_. If the **-s **flag is specified the created link is a symbolic link, otherwise it is a hard link. **lpwd **Print local working directory. **ls **[**-1afhlnrSt**] [_path_] Display a remote directory listing of either _path_ or the current directory if _path_ is not specified. _path_ may contain [_glob_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/glob/7/markdown) characters and may match multiple files. The following flags are recognized and alter the behaviour of **ls **accordingly: **-1 **Produce single columnar output. **-a **List files beginning with a dot (‘.’). **-f **Do not sort the listing. The default sort order is lexicographical. **-h **When used with a long format option, use unit suffixes: Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte, Petabyte, and Exabyte in order to reduce the number of digits to four or fewer using powers of 2 for sizes (K=1024, M=1048576, etc.). **-l **Display additional details including permissions and ownership information. **-n **Produce a long listing with user and group information presented numerically. **-r **Reverse the sort order of the listing. **-S **Sort the listing by file size. **-t **Sort the listing by last modification time. **lumask _**umask_ Set local umask to _umask_. **mkdir _**path_ Create remote directory specified by _path_. ### progress Toggle display of progress meter. **put **[**-afpR**] _local-path_ [_remote-path_] Upload _local-path_ and store it on the remote machine. If the remote path name is not specified, it is given the same name it has on the local machine. _local-path_ may contain [_glob_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/glob/7/markdown) characters and may match multiple files. If it does and _remote-path_ is specified, then _remote-path_ must specify a directory. If the **-a **flag is specified, then attempt to resume partial transfers of existing files. Note that resumption assumes that any partial copy of the remote file matches the local copy. If the local file contents differ from the remote local copy then the resultant file is likely to be corrupt. If the **-f **flag is specified, then a request will be sent to the server to call [_fsync_(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fsync/2/markdown) after the file has been transferred. Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the "" extension. If the **-p **flag is specified, then full file permissions and access times are copied too. If the **-R **flag is specified then directories will be copied recursively. Note that **sftp **does not follow symbolic links when performing recursive transfers. **pwd **Display remote working directory. **quit **Quit **sftp**. **reget **[**-fpR**] _remote-path_ [_local-path_] Resume download of _remote-path_. Equivalent to **get **with the **-a **flag set. **reput **[**-fpR**] _local-path_ [_remote-path_] Resume upload of _local-path_. Equivalent to **put **with the **-a **flag set. **rename _**oldpath_ _newpath_ Rename remote file from _oldpath_ to _newpath_. **rm _**path_ Delete remote file specified by _path_. **rmdir _**path_ Remove remote directory specified by _path_. **symlink _**oldpath_ _newpath_ Create a symbolic link from _oldpath_ to _newpath_. ### version Display the **sftp **protocol version. **!_**command_ Execute _command_ in local shell. **! **Escape to local shell. **? **Synonym for help. ## SEE ALSO [_ftp_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ftp/1/markdown), [_ls_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ls/1/markdown), [_scp_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/scp/1/markdown), [_ssh_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh/1/markdown), [_ssh-add_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh-add/1/markdown), [_ssh-keygen_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ssh-keygen/1/markdown), [_ssh_config_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sshconfig/5/markdown), [_glob_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/glob/7/markdown), [_sftp-server_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sftp-server/8/markdown), [_sshd_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sshd/8/markdown) T. Ylonen and S. Lehtinen, _SSH_ _File_ _Transfer_ _Protocol_, draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-00.txt, January 2001, work in progress material. Debian December 16, 2022 [_SFTP_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SFTP/1/markdown)