SFTP(1) General Commands Manual SFTP(1)
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 authenti-
cation.
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 overwrit-
ing existing partial or complete copies of files. If the par-
tial contents differ from those being transferred, then the re-
sultant 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 exam-
ple, -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 trans-
fer. 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 pub-
lic 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. Mul-
tiple jump hops may be specified separated by comma characters.
This is a shortcut to specify a ProxyJump configuration direc-
tive. 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 de-
tails of the options listed below, and their possible values,
see ssh_config(5).
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 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 re-
quests.
-r Recursively copy entire directories when uploading and down-
loading. Note that sftp does not follow symbolic links encoun-
tered 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 behav-
iour. The valid options are:
nrequests=value
Controls how many concurrent SFTP read or write re-
quests may be in progress at any point in time during a
download or upload. By default 64 requests may be ac-
tive 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). Commands are case insensitive. Pathnames that con-
tain spaces must be enclosed in quotes. Any special characters con-
tained within pathnames that are recognized by glob(3) must be escaped
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)
characters and may match multiple files. grp must be a numeric
GID.
If the -h flag is specified, then symlinks will not be fol-
lowed. Note that this is only supported by servers that imple-
ment the "lsetstat@openssh.com" extension.
chmod [-h] mode path
Change permissions of file path to mode. path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple files.
If the -h flag is specified, then symlinks will not be fol-
lowed. Note that this is only supported by servers that imple-
ment the "lsetstat@openssh.com" extension.
chown [-h] own path
Change owner of file path to own. path may contain glob(7)
characters and may match multiple files. own must be a numeric
UID.
If the -h flag is specified, then symlinks will not be fol-
lowed. Note that this is only supported by servers that imple-
ment the "lsetstat@openssh.com" 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 cur-
rent directory (or path if specified). If the -h flag is spec-
ified, the capacity information will be displayed using "human-
readable" suffixes. The -i flag requests display of inode in-
formation in addition to capacity information. This command is
only supported on servers that implement the
“statvfs@openssh.com” 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)
characters and may match multiple files. If it does and
local-path is specified, then local-path must specify a direc-
tory.
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) 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 ac-
cess times are copied too.
If the -R flag is specified then directories will be copied re-
cursively. 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 di-
rectory if path is not specified. ls-options may contain any
flags supported by the local system's ls(1) command. path may
contain glob(7) 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 spec-
ified 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 cur-
rent directory if path is not specified. path may contain
glob(7) 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) char-
acters and may match multiple files. If it does and
remote-path is specified, then remote-path must specify a di-
rectory.
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) after the file has been transferred.
Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
"fsync@openssh.com" extension.
If the -p flag is specified, then full file permissions and ac-
cess times are copied too.
If the -R flag is specified then directories will be copied re-
cursively. 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), ls(1), scp(1), ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-keygen(1),
ssh_config(5), glob(7), sftp-server(8), sshd(8)
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)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 06:20:35 CET 2025.