bsdftp -- Internet file transfer program

SYNOPSIS

bsdftp [-46AadefginpRtvV] [-N netrc] [-o output] [-P port] [-q quittime] [-r retry] [-Tdir,max[,inc]] [[user@]host [port]] [[user@]host:[path][/]] [file:///path] [ftp://[user[:password]@host[:port/path[/][;type=X]] [http://[user[:password]@host:port/path] [...]

bsdftp -u URL file [...]

DESCRIPTION

bsdftp is the user interface to the Internet standard File Transfer Protocol. The program allows a user to transfer files to and from a remote network site.

The last five arguments fetch a file using the FTP or HTTP protocols, or by direct copying, into the current directory. This is ideal for scripts. Refer to Auto-Fetching Files for more information.

Options

Options may be specified at the command line, or to the command interpreter.

-4: Forces bsdftp to only use IPv4 addresses.
-6: Forces bsdftp to only use IPv6 addresses.
-A: Forces active mode ftp. By default, bsdftp tries to use passive mode ftp and fall back to active mode if passive is not supported by the server. This option causes bsdftp 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 bsdftp to bypass normal login procedure, and use an anonymous login instead.
-d: Enables debugging.
-f: Forces a cache reload for transfers that go through the FTP or HTTP proxies.
-g: Disables file name globbing.
-i: Turns off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers.
-n: Restrains bsdftp from attempting auto-login upon initial connection for non auto-fetch transfers. If auto-login is enabled, bsdftp checks the .netrc file in the user's home directory for an entry describing an account on the remote machine. If no entry exists, bsdftp prompts 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 login. To override the auto-login for auto-fetch transfers, specify the user name (and optionally, password) as appropriate.
-N netrc: Uses netrc instead of ~/.netrc. Refer to The .netrc File for more information.
-o output: When auto-fetching files, saves the contents in output. output is parsed according to the File Naming Conventions section. When output is not - or doesn't start with |, only the first file specified is retrieved into output; all other files are retrieved into the basename of their remote name.
-p: Enables passive mode operation for use behind connection filtering firewalls. This option has been deprecated as bsdftp now tries to use passive mode by default, falling back to active mode if the server does not support passive connections.
-P port: Sets the port number to port.
-r wait: Retries the connection attempt if it failed, pausing for wait seconds.
-q quittime: Quits if the connection has stalled for quittime seconds.
-R: Restarts all non-proxied auto-fetches.
-t: Enables packet tracing.
-T direction, maximum [,increment]: Sets the maximum transfer rate for direction to maximum bytes/second, and if specified, the increment to increment bytes/second. Refer to rate for more information.
-u URL file [...]: Uploads files on the command line to URL where URL is one of the ftp URL types as supported by auto-fetch (with an optional target file name for single file uploads), and file is one or more local files to be uploaded.
-v: Enables verbose and progress. This is the default if output is to a terminal (and in the case of progress, bsdftp is the foreground process). Forces bsdftp to show all responses from the remote server, as well as report on data transfer statistics.
-V: Disables verbose and progress. overriding the default of enabled when output is to a terminal.

Commands

The client host with which bsdftp is to communicate may be specified on the command line. When this is done, bsdftp immediately attempts to establish a connection to an FTP server on that host; otherwise, bsdftp enters its command interpreter and awaits instructions from the user. When bsdftp is awaiting commands from the user the prompt ftp> is provided to the user. The following commands are recognized by bsdftp:

! [command [args]]

Invokes 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]

Executes the macro macro-name that was defined with the macdef command. Arguments are passed to the macro unglobbed.

account [passwd]

Supplies 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 is prompted for an account password in a non-echoing input mode.

append local-file [remote-file]

Appends a local file to a file on the remote machine. When 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

Sets the file transfer type to network ASCII. This is the default type.

bell

Sounds a bell after each file transfer command is completed.

binary

Sets the file transfer type to support binary image transfer.

bye

Terminates the FTP session with the remote server and exits bsdftp. An end of file also terminates the session and exit.

case

Toggles remote computer file name case mapping during get, mget, and mput 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

Changes the working directory on the remote machine to remote-directory.

cdup

Changes the remote machine working directory to the parent of the current remote machine working directory.

chmod mode remote-file

Changes the permission modes of the file remote-file on the remote system to mode.

close

Terminates the FTP session with the remote server, and returns to the command interpreter. Any defined macros are erased.

cr

Toggles 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 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]

Toggles debugging mode. When an optional debug-value is specified it is used to set the debugging level. When debugging is on, bsdftp displays each command sent to the remote machine, preceded by the string -->

delete remote-file

Deletes the file remote-file on the remote machine.

dir [remote-path [local-file]]

Displays a listing of the contents of a directory on the remote machine. The listing includes any system-dependent information that the server chooses to include; for example, most systems produce output from the command ls -l. When remote-path is left unspecified, the current working directory is used. When interactive prompting is on, bsdftp prompts the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the target local file for receiving dir output. When no local file is specified, or when local-file is -, the output is sent to the terminal.

disconnect

Is a synonym for close.

epsv4

Toggles the use of the extended EPSV and EPRT commands on IPv4 connections; first try EPSV/EPRT, and then PASV/PORT. This is enabled by default. If an extended command fails then this option is temporarily disabled for the duration of the current connection, or until epsv4 is executed again.

exit

Is a synonym for bye.

features

Displays the list of features the remote server supports (using the FEAT command).

fget localfile

Retrieves the files listed in localfile, which has one line per file name.

form format

Sets the file transfer form to format. The default (and only supported) format is non-print.

ftp host [port]

Is a synonym for open.

gate [host [port]]

Toggles gate-ftp mode, which used to connect through the TIS FWTK and Gauntlet ftp proxies. This is not permitted when the gate-ftp server hasn't been set (either explicitly by the user, or from the FTPSERVER environment variable). When host is given, then gate-ftp mode is enabled, and the gate-ftp server is set to host. When port is also given, that is used as the port to connect to on the gate-ftp server.

get remote-file [local-file]

Retrieves the remote-file and stores it on the local machine. When 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 settings for type, form, mode, and structure are used while transferring the file.

glob

Toggles file name expansion for mdelete, mget, mput, and mreget. When globbing is turned off with glob, the file name arguments are taken literally and not expanded. Globbing for mput is done as in csh. For mdelete, mget, and mreget, 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, mput, and mreget are not meant to transfer entire directory subtrees of files. That can be done by transferring a tar archive of the subtree (in binary mode).

hash [size]

Toggles hash-sign (#) 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. Enabling hash disables progress.

help [command]

Displays an informative message about the meaning of command. When no argument is given, bsdftp displays a list of the known commands.

idle [seconds]

Sets the inactivity timer on the remote server to seconds seconds. When seconds is omitted, the current inactivity timer is displayed.

image

Is a synonym for binary.

lcd [directory]

Changes the working directory on the local machine. When no directory is specified, the user's home directory is used.

less file

Is a synonym for page.

lpage local-file

Displays local-file with the program specified by the set pager option.

lpwd

Displays the working directory on the local machine.

ls [remote-path [local-file]]

Is a synonym for dir.

macdef macro-name

Defines 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 maximum of 8 characters. Macros are only applicable to the current session they are defined within (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 invoke a macro, use the $ command (see above).

The macro processor interprets $ and \e as special characters. A $ followed by a number (or numbers) is replaced by the corresponding argument on the macro invocation command line. A $ followed by an i signals 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 \e followed by any character is replaced by that character. Use the \e to prevent special treatment of the $.

mdelete [remote-files]

Deletes the remote-files on the remote machine.

mdir remote-files local-file

Is similar to dir, except multiple remote files may be specified. When interactive prompting is on, bsdftp prompts the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the target local file for receiving mdir output.

mget remote-files

Expands the remote-files on the remote machine and do a get for each file name thus produced. See glob for details on the file name expansion. Resulting file names are then 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

Makes a directory on the remote machine.

mls remote-files local-file

Is similar to ls. except multiple remote files may be specified, and the local-file must be specified. If interactive prompting is on, bsdftp prompts the user to verify that the last argument is indeed the target local file for receiving mls output.

mlsd [remote-path]

Displays the contents of remote-path (which should default to the current directory if not given) in a machine-parsable form, using MLSD. The format of display can be changed with remopts mlst ....

mlst [remote-path]

Displays the details about remote-path (which should default to the current directory if not given) in a machine-parsable form, using MLST. The format of display can be changed with remopts mlst ....

mode mode-name

Sets the file transfer mode to mode-name. The default (and only supported) mode is stream.

modtime remote-file

Shows the last modification time of the file on the remote machine.

more file

Is a synonym for page.

mput local-files

Expands 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 file name expansion. Resulting file names are then processed according to ntrans and nmap settings.

mreget remote-files

Is similar to mget. but performs a reget instead of get.

msend local-files

Is a synonym for mput.

newer remote-file [local-file]

Gets the file only if the modification time of the remote file is more recent that the file on the current system. When the file does not exist on the current system, the remote file is considered newer. Otherwise, this command is identical to get.

nlist [remote-path [local-file]]

Is a synonym for ls.

nmap [inpattern outpattern]

Sets or unsets the file name mapping mechanism. When no arguments are specified, the file name mapping mechanism is unset. When arguments are specified, remote file names are mapped during mput commands and put commands issued without a specified remote target file name. When arguments are specified, local file names are mapped during mget commands and get commands issued without a specified local target file name. This command 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 file names (which may have already been processed according to the ntrans and case settings). Variable templating is accomplished by including the sequences $1, $2, ... $9 in inpattern. Use \e 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 resulting mapped file name. The sequences $1, $2, ... $9 are replaced by any value resulting from the inpattern template. The sequence $0 is replaced by the original file name. Additionally, the sequence [seq1, seq2] is replaced by [seq1] when seq1 is not a null string; otherwise it is replaced by seq2. For example, the command:

nmap $1.$2.$3 [$1,$2].[$2,file]

yields the output file name myfile.data for input file names myfile.data and myfile.data.old, myfile.file for the input file name myfile, and myfile.myfile for the input file name .myfile. Spaces may be included in outpattern, as in the example:

nmap $1 sed s/  *$// > $1

Use the \e character to prevent special treatment of the $, [, ], and , characters.

ntrans [inchars [outchars]]

Sets or unsets the file name character translation mechanism. If no arguments are specified, the file name character translation mechanism is unset. If arguments are specified, characters in remote file names are translated during mput commands and put commands issued without a specified remote target file name. If arguments are specified, characters in local file names are translated during mget commands and get commands issued without a specified local target file name. This command is useful when connecting to a non-UNIX remote computer with different file naming conventions or practices. Characters in a file name 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]

Establishes a connection to the specified host FTP server. An optional port number may be supplied, in which case, bsdftp attempts to contact an FTP server at that port. If the set auto-login option is on (default), bsdftp also attempts to automatically log the user in to the FTP server (see below).

page file

Retrieves file and display with the program specified by the set pager option.

passive [auto]

Toggles passive mode (if no arguments are given). When auto is given, behavior is as if the FTPMODE environment variable is set to auto. If passive mode is turned on (default), bsdftp sends a PASV command for all data connections instead of a 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 using the more traditional PORT command, the client listens on a port and sends that address to the remote server, who connects back to it. Passive mode is useful when using bsdftp through a gateway router or host that controls the directionality of traffic. (Note that though FTP servers are required to support the PASV command by RFC 1123, some do not.)

pdir [remote-path]

Performs dir [remote-path], and displays the result with the program specified by the set pager option.

pls [remote-path]

Performs ls [remote-path], and displays the result with the program specified by the set pager option.

pmlsd [remote-path]

Performs mlsd [remote-path], and displays the result with the program specified by the set pager option.

preserve

Toggles preservation of modification times on retrieved files.

progress

Toggles display of transfer progress bar. The progress bar is disabled for a transfer that has local-file as Fl or a command that starts with |. Refer to File Naming Conventions for more information. Enabling progress disables hash.

prompt

Toggles interactive prompting. Interactive prompting 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 transfers all files, and any mdelete deletes all files.

When prompting is on, the following commands are available at a prompt:

a: Answers yes to the current file, and automatically answers yes to any remaining files for the current command.
n: Answers no, and does not transfer the file.
p: Answers yes to the current file, and turn off prompt mode (as if prompt off had been given).
q: Terminates the current operation.
y: Answers yes, and transfers the file.
?: Displays a help message.

Any other response answers yes to the current file.

proxy ftp-command

Executes 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 connection. The following commands behave differently when prefaced by proxy: open does not define new macros during the auto-login process, close does 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 control connection.

put local-file [remote-file]

Stores a local file on the remote machine. When 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

Displays the name of the current working directory on the remote machine.

quit

Is a synonym for bye.

quote arg1 arg2 ...

Sends the specified arguments, verbatim, to the remote FTP server.

rate direction [maximum [increment]]

Throttles the maximum transfer rate to maximum bytes/second. When maximum is 0, disable the throttle.

direction may be one of:

all: Both directions.
get: Incoming transfers.
put: Outgoing transfers.

maximum can be modified on the fly by increment bytes (default: 1024) each time a given signal is received:

SIGUSR1: Increment maximum by increment bytes.
SIGUSR2: Decrement maximum by increment bytes. The result must be a positive number.

When maximum is not supplied, the current throttle rates are displayed.

Note:: rate is not yet implemented for ascii mode transfers.

rcvbuf size

Sets the size of the socket receive buffer to size.

recv remote-file [local-file]

Is a synonym for get.

reget remote-file [local-file]

Acts like get. except that when local-file exists and is smaller than remote-file, local-file is presumed to be a partially 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.

remopts command [command-options]

Sets options on the remote FTP server for command to command-options (whose absence is handled on a command-specific basis). Remote FTP commands known to support options include: MLST (used for MLSD and MLST).

rename [from [to]]

Renames the file from on the remote machine, to the file to.

reset

Clears 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

Restarts 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]

Requests help from the remote FTP server. When a command-name is specified it is supplied to the server as well.

rmdir directory-name

Deletes a directory on the remote machine.

rstatus [remote-file]

With no arguments, shows status of the remote machine. When remote-file is specified, show status of remote-file on remote machine.

runique

Toggles storing of files on the local system with unique file names. When a file already exists with a name equal to the target local file name 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 file name is reported. Note that runique does not affect local files generated from a shell command (see below). The default value is off.

send local-file [remote-file]

Is a synonym for put.

sendport

Toggles the use of PORT commands. By default, bsdftp attempts 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. When the PORT command fails, bsdftp uses the default data port. When the use of PORT commands is disabled, no attempt is made to use PORT commands for each data transfer. This is useful for certain FTP implementations which do ignore PORT commands but, incorrectly, indicate they've been accepted.

set [option value]

Sets option to value. When option and value are not given, set displays all of the options and their values. The currently supported options are:

anonpass: Defaults to the value of the FTPANONPASS environment variable.
ftp_proxy: Defaults to the value of the ftp_proxy environment variable.
http_proxy: Defaults to the value of the http_proxy environment variable.
no_proxy: Defaults to the value of the no_proxy environment variable.
pager: Defaults to the value of the PAGER environment variable.
prompt: Defaults to the value of the FTPPROMPT environment variable.
rprompt: Defaults to the value of the FTPRPROMPT environment variable.

site arg1 arg2 ...

Sends the specified arguments, verbatim, to the remote FTP server as a SITE command.

size remote-file

Returns the size of remote-file on remote machine.

sndbuf size

Sets the size of the socket send buffer to size.

status

Displays the current status of bsdftp.

struct struct-name

Sets the file transfer structure to struct-name. The default (and only supported) structure is file.

sunique

Toggles the storing of files on remote machine under unique file names. The remote FTP server must support FTP protocol STOU command for successful completion. The remote server reports a unique name. Default value is off.

system

Displays the type of operating system running on the remote machine.

tenex

Sets the file transfer type to that needed to talk to TENEX machines.

throttle

Is a synonym for rate.

trace

Toggles packet tracing.

type [type-name]

Sets the file transfer type to type-name. If no type is specified, the current type is displayed. The default type is network ASCII.

umask [newmask]

Sets the default umask on the remote server to newmask. When newmask is omitted, the current umask is displayed.

unset option

Unsets option. Refer to set for more information.

usage command

Displays the usage message for command.

user user-name [password [account]]

Identifies yourself to the remote FTP server. When the password is not specified and the server requires it, bsdftp prompts the user for it (after disabling local echo). When an account field is not specified, and the FTP server requires it, the user is prompted for it. When an account field is specified, an account command is relayed to the remote server after the login sequence is completed if the remote server did not require it for logging in. Unless bsdftp is invoked with auto-login disabled, this process is done automatically on initial connection to the FTP server.

verbose

Toggles verbose mode. In verbose mode, all responses from the FTP server are displayed to the user. In addition, when verbose is on, when a file transfer completes, statistics regarding the efficiency of the transfer are reported. By default, verbose is on.

xferbuf size

Sets the size of the socket send and receive buffers to size.

? [command]

Is a synonym for help.

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.

Commands which take a byte count as an argument (for example, hash. rate. and xferbuf) support an optional suffix on the argument which changes the interpretation of the argument. Supported suffixes are:

b: Causes no modification. (Optional)
k: Kilo; multiply the argument by 1024
m: Mega; multiply the argument by 1048576
g: Giga; multiply the argument by 1073741824

When bsdftp receives a SIGINFO (see the status argument of stty) or SIGQUIT signal whilst a transfer is in progress, the current transfer rate statistics are written to the standard error stream, in the same format as the standard completion message.

Auto-Fetching Files

In addition to standard commands, this version of bsdftp 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:

[user@]host:[path][/]

Classic FTP format.

When path contains a glob character and globbing is enabled, (see glob), the equivalent of mget path is performed.

When the directory component of path contains no globbing characters, it is stored locally with the name basename (see basename) of path in the current directory. Otherwise, the full remote name is used as the local name, relative to the local root directory.

ftp://[user[:password]@host:port/path[/][;type=X]

An FTP URL, retrieved using the FTP protocol if set ftp_proxy isn't defined. Otherwise, transfer the URL using HTTP via the proxy defined in set ftp_proxy. When set ftp_proxy isn't defined and user is given, login as user. In this case, use password when supplied; otherwise, prompt the user for one.

When a suffix of ;type=A or ;type=I is supplied, the transfer type takes place as ascii or binary (respectively). The default transfer type is binary.

For compliance with RFC 1738, bsdftp interprets the path part of an ftp:// auto-fetch URL as follows:

The / immediately after the host:port is interpreted as a separator before the path, and not as part of the path itself.

The path is interpreted as a /-separated list of name components. For all but the last such component, bsdftp performs the equivalent of a cd command. For the last path component, bsdftp performs the equivalent of a get command.

Empty name components, which result from // within the path, or from an extra / at the beginning of the path, causes the equivalent of a cd command without a directory name. This is unlikely to be useful.

Any %XX codes (per RFC 1738) within the path components are decoded, with XX representing a character code in hexadecimal. This decoding takes place after the path has been split into components, but before each component is used in the equivalent of a cd or get command. Some often-used codes are %2F (which represents /) and %7E (which represents ~).

The above interpretation has the following consequences:

The path is interpreted relative to the default login directory of the specified user or of the anonymous user. If the / directory is required, use a leading path of %2F. If a user's home directory is required (and the remote server supports the syntax), use a leading path of %7Euser/. For example, to retrieve /etc/motd from localhost as the user myname with the password mypass, use ftp://myname:mypass@localhost/%2fetc/motd

The exact cd and get commands can be controlled by careful choice of where to use / and where to use %2F (or %2f). For example, the following URLs correspond to the equivalents of the indicated commands:

ftp://host/dir1/dir2/file

cd dir1, cd dir2, get file.

ftp://host/%2Fdir1/dir2/file

cd /dir1, cd dir2, get file.

ftp://host/dir1%2Fdir2/file

cd dir1/dir2, get file.

ftp://host/%2Fdir1%2Fdir2/file

cd /dir1/dir2, get file.

ftp://host/dir1%2Fdir2%2Ffile

get dir1/dir2/file.

ftp://host/%2Fdir1%2Fdir2%2Ffile

get /dir1/dir2/file.

You must have appropriate access permission for each of the intermediate directories that is used in the equivalent of a cd command.

http://[user[:password]@host:port/path

An HTTP URL, retrieved using the HTTP protocol. When set http_proxy is defined, it is used as a URL to an HTTP proxy server. When HTTP authorization is required to retrieve path, and user (and optionally password) is in the URL, use them for the first attempt to authenticate.

file:///path

A local URL, copied from /path on the local host.

Unless noted otherwise above, and -o output is not given, the file is stored in the current directory as the basename of path. Note that if a HTTP redirect is received, the fetch is retried using the new target URL supplied by the server, with a corresponding new path. Using an explicit -o output is recommended, to avoid writing to unexpected file names.

If a classic format or an FTP URL format has a trailing / or an empty path component, then bsdftp connects to the site and cd to the directory given as the path, and leave the user in interactive mode ready for further input. This does not work if set ftp_proxy is being used.

Direct HTTP transfers use HTTP 1.1. Proxied FTP and HTTP transfers use HTTP 1.0.

When -R is given, all auto-fetches that don't go via the FTP or HTTP proxies are restarted. For FTP, this is implemented by using reget instead of get. For HTTP, this is implemented by using the Range: bytes= HTTP/1.1 directive.

If WWW or proxy WWW authentication is required, you are prompted to enter a user name and password to authenticate with.

When specifying IPv6 numeric addresses in a URL, you need to surround the address in square brackets (for example, ftp://[::1]:21/). This is because colons are used in IPv6 numeric address as well as being the separator for the port number.

Aborting A File Transfer

To abort a file transfer, use the terminal interrupt key (usually CTRL-C). Sending transfers are immediately halted. Receiving transfers are 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 processing. If the remote server does not support the ABOR command, the prompt does not appear until the remote server has completed sending the requested file.

When the terminal interrupt key sequence is used while bsdftp is awaiting a reply from the remote server for the ABOR processing, the connection is closed. This is different from the traditional behaviour (which ignores the terminal interrupt during this phase), but is considered more useful.

File Naming Conventions

Files specified as arguments to bsdftp commands are processed according to the following rules.

When the file name Fl is specified, the stdin (for reading) or stdout (for writing) stream is used.

When the first character of the file name is |, the remainder of the argument is interpreted as a shell command. bsdftp then forks a shell, using popen() with the argument supplied, and reads (writes) from the stdout (stdin) stream. When the shell command includes spaces, the argument must be quoted; for example, | ls -lt. A particularly useful example of this mechanism is: dir "" |more.

Failing the above checks, when globbing is enabled, local file names are expanded according to the rules used in the csh; for more information, see the glob command. When the bsdftp command expects a single local file (for example, put), only the first file name generated by the globbing operation is used.

For mget commands and get commands with unspecified local file names, the local file name is the remote file name, which may be altered by a case, ntrans, or nmap setting. The resulting file name may then be altered if runique is on.

For mput commands and put commands with unspecified remote file names, the remote file name is the local file name, which may be altered by a ntrans or nmap setting. The resulting file name 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, or local byte size (for PDP-10's and PDP-20's mostly). bsdftp supports the ascii and image types of file transfer, plus local byte size 8 for tenex mode transfers.

bsdftp 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, unless overridden with the -N netrc option, or specified in the NETRC environment variable. The following tokens are recognized; they may be separated by spaces, tabs, or new-lines:

machine name

Identifies a remote machine name. The auto-login process searches the .netrc file for a machine token that matches the remote machine specified on the bsdftp 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

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 an automatic anonymous FTP login to machines not specified in .netrc. This can be overridden by using the -n option to disable auto-login.

login name

Identifies a user on the remote machine. When this token is present, the auto-login process initiates a login using the specified name.

password string

Supplies a password. When this token is present, the auto-login process supplies 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, bsdftp aborts the auto-login process if the .netrc is readable by anyone besides the user.

account string

Supplies an additional account password. When this token is present, the auto-login process supplies the specified string if the remote server requires an additional account password, or the auto-login process initiates an ACCT command if it does not.

macdef name

Defines a macro. This token functions like the bsdftp macdef command functions. A macro is defined with the specified name; its contents begin with the next .netrc line and continue until a blank line (consecutive newline characters) is encountered. Like the other tokens in the .netrc file, a macdef is applicable 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 automatically executed as the last step in the auto-login process. For example:

default
macdef init
epsv4 off

followed by a blank line.

Command Line Prompt

By default, bsdftp displays a command line prompt of ftp> to the user. This can be changed with the set prompt command.

A prompt can be displayed on the right side of the screen (after the command input) with the set rprompt command.

The following formatting sequences are replaced by the given information:

%/: The current remote working directory.
%c[0n]
%.[0n]: The trailing component of the current remote working directory, or n trailing components if a digit n is given. When n begins with 0, the number of skipped components precede the trailing component(s) in the format /<number>trailing (for %c) or ...trailing (for %.).
%M: The remote host name.
%m: The remote host name, up to the first . character.
%n: The remote user name.
%%: A single %.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

FTPANONPASS

Password to send in an anonymous FTP transfer. Defaults to whoami`@.

FTPMODE

Overrides the default operation mode. Support values are:

active: active mode FTP only
auto: automatic determination of passive or active (this is the default)
gate: gate-ftp mode
passive: passive mode FTP only

FTPPROMPT

Command-line prompt to use. Defaults to ftp> . Refer to Command Line Prompt for more information.

FTPRPROMPT

Command-line right side prompt to use. Defaults to (a single space>. Refer to Command Line Prompt for more information.

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.

FTPUSERAGENT

The value to send for the HTTP User-Agent header.

HOME

For default location of a .netrc file, if one exists.

NETRC

An alternate location of the .netrc file.

PAGER

Used by various commands to display files. Defaults to more if empty or not set.

SHELL

For default shell.

ftp_proxy

URL of FTP proxy to use when making FTP URL requests (if not defined, use the standard FTP protocol).

See http_proxy for further notes about proxy use.

http_proxy

URL of HTTP proxy to use when making HTTP URL requests. When proxy authentication is required and there is a user name and password in this URL, they are automatically used in the first attempt to authenticate to the proxy.

When "unsafe" URL characters are required in the user name or password (for example, @ or /), encode them with RFC 1738 %XX encoding.

Note that the use of a user name and password in ftp_proxy and http_proxy may be incompatible with other programs that use it.

Note:: This is not used for interactive sessions, only for command-line fetches.

no_proxy

A space or comma separated list of hosts (or domains) for which proxying is not to be used. Each entry may have an optional trailing :port, which restricts the matching to connections to that port.

EXTENDED PASSIVE MODE AND FIREWALLS

Some firewall configurations do not allow bsdftp to use extended passive mode. If you find that even a simple ls appears to hang after printing a message such as this:

229 Entering Extended Passive Mode (|||58551|)

then you must disable extended passive mode with epsv4 off. See the above section The .netrc File for an example of how to make this automatic.

PORTABILITY

Windows 10. Windows Server 2016. Windows Server 2019. Windows 11. Windows Server 2022. Windows Server 2025.

bsdftp attempts to be compliant with RFC 959, RFC 1123, RFC 1738, RFC 2068, RFC 2389, RFC 2428, RFC 2732, and draft-ietf-ftpext-mlst-11.

NOTES

Correct execution of many commands depends upon proper behavior by the remote server.

bsdftp assumes that all IPv4 mapped addresses (IPv6 addresses with a form like ::ffff:10.1.1.1) indicate IPv4 destinations which can be handled by AF_INET sockets. However, in certain IPv6 network configurations, this assumption is not true. In such an environment, IPv4 mapped addresses must be passed to AF_INET6 sockets directly. For example, if your site uses a SIIT translator for IPv6-to-IPv4 translation, bsdftp is unable to support your configuration.

AVAILABILITY

PTC MKS Toolkit for System Administrators
PTC MKS Toolkit for Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Interoperability
PTC MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers 64-Bit Edition
PTC MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers 64-Bit Edition

bsdftp
Internet file transfer program

Command