For basic ftp syntax see the main ftp page
This page lists Advanced Options, Cancelling FTP, File Naming Conventions, .netrc file, Command Line Editing, Command Line Prompt and Environment.
Syntax
ftp [options] -u url file [...]
Advanced Options
-A Force active mode ftp. By default, ftp will try to use passive
mode ftp and fall back to active mode if passive is not sup-
ported by the server. This option causes ftp 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 ftp to bypass normal login procedure, and use an anonymous
login instead.
-d Enables debugging.
-e Disables command line editing. This is useful for Emacs angeftp mode.
-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 Restrain ftp from attempting `auto-login' upon initial con-
nection. If auto-login is enabled, ftp will check the .netrc
(see below) file in the user’s home directory for an entry
describing an account on the remote machine. If no entry
exists, ftp will prompt 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.
-o output
When auto-fetching files, save the contents in output. output
is parsed according to the FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS below. If
output is not '-' or doesn’t start with `|', then only the first
file specified will be retrieved into output; all other files
will be retrieved into the basename of their remote name.
-p Enable passive mode operation for use behind connection filter-
ing firewalls. This option has been deprecated as ftp 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 Retry the connection attempt if it failed, pausing for wait sec-
onds.
-R Restart all non-proxied auto-fetches.
-t Enables packet tracing.
-T direction,maximum[,increment]
Set 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 [...]
Upload files on the command line to url where url is one of the
ftp URL types as supported by auto-fetch (with an optional tar-
get filename for single file uploads), and file is one or more
local files to be uploaded.
-v Enable verbose and progress. This is the default if output is
to a terminal (and in the case of progress, ftp is the fore-
ground process). Forces ftp to show all responses from the
remote server, as well as report on data transfer statistics.
-V Disable verbose and progress, overriding the default of enabled
when output is to a terminal.
The client host with which ftp is to communicate can 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 provided 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 com-
mand is completed.
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 during 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.
chmod mode remote-file
Change the permission modes of the file remote-file on the
remote system to mode.
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 can contain single line-
feeds; when an ascii type transfer is made, these linefeeds
might be distinguished from a record delimiter only when cr is
off.
debug [debug-value]
Toggle debugging mode. If an optional debug-value is speci-
fied it is used to set the debugging level. When debugging
is on, ftp prints each command sent to the remote machine,
preceded by the string `-->'
delete remote-file
Delete the file remote-file on the remote machine.
dir [remote-path [local-file]]
Print a listing of the contents of a directory on the remote
machine. The listing includes any system-dependent informa-
tion that the server chooses to include; for example, most
UNIX systems will produce output from the command `ls -l'.
If remote-path is left unspecified, the current working
directory is used. If interactive prompting is on, ftp will
prompt the user to verify that the last argument is indeed
the target local file for receiving dir output. If no local
file is specified, or if local-file is '-', the output is
sent to the terminal.
disconnect A synonym for close.
edit Toggle command line editing, and context sensitive command
and file completion. This is automatically enabled if input
is from a terminal, and disabled otherwise.
epsv4 Toggle 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 will be temporarily disabled for the dura-
tion of the current connection, or until epsv4 is executed
again.
exit A synonym for bye.
features Display what features the remote server supports (using the
FEAT command).
fget localfile
Retrieve the files listed in localfile, which has one line
per filename.
form format
Set the file transfer form to format. The default format is 'file'.
ftp host [port]
A synonym for open.
gate [host [port]]
Toggle gate-ftp mode, which used to connect through the TIS
FWTK and Gauntlet ftp proxies. This will not be permitted if
the gate-ftp server hasn’t been set (either explicitly by the
user, or from the FTPSERVER environment variable). If host
is given, then gate-ftp mode will be enabled, and the gate-
ftp server will be set to host. If port is also given, that
will be used as the port to connect to on the gate-ftp
server.
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
settings 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 direc-
tory subtrees of files. That can be done by transferring a
tar(1) archive of the subtree (in binary mode).
hash [size]
Toggle hash-sign ('#') printing for each data block trans-
ferred. 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]
Print an informative message about the meaning of command.
If no argument is given, ftp prints a list of the known com-
mands.
idle [seconds]
Set the inactivity timer on the remote server to seconds sec-
onds. If seconds is omitted, the current inactivity timer is
printed.
image A synonym for binary.
lcd [directory]
Change the working directory on the local machine. If no
directory is specified, the user’s home directory is used.
less file A synonym for page.
lpage local-file
Display local-file with the program specified by the set
pager option.
lpwd Print the working directory on the local machine.
ls [remote-path [local-file]]
A synonym for dir.
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
characters 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 `$' fol-
lowed by an `i' signals that macro processor that the execut-
ing macro is to be looped. On the first pass `$i' is
replaced by the first argument on the macro invocation com-
mand 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 can be specified. If
interactive prompting is on, ftp will prompt the user to ver-
ify that the last argument 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 can be specified, and
the local-file must 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 mls out-
put.
mlsd [remote-path]
Display 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]
Display 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
Set the file transfer mode to mode-name. The default mode is
'stream' mode.
modtime remote-file
Show the last modification time of the file on the remote
machine.
more file A synonym for page.
mput local-files
Expand wild cards in the list of local files given as argu-
ments and do a put for each file in the resulting list. See
glob for details of filename expansion. Resulting file names
will then be processed according to ntrans and nmap settings.
msend local-files
A synonym for mput.
newer remote-file [local-file]
Get the file only if the modification time of the remote file
is more recent that the file on the current system. If 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]]
A synonym for ls.
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 com-
mand 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 filenames (which might
have already been processed according to the ntrans and case
settings). Variable templating is accomplished by including
the sequences `$1', `$2', ..., `$9' in inpattern. Use `\' to
prevent this special treatment of the `$' 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 replace by the original filename. Addition-
ally, 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 file-
names "myfile.data" and "myfile.data.old", "myfile.file" for
the input filename "myfile", and "myfile.myfile" for the
input filename ".myfile". Spaces can 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 trans-
lation mechanism is unset. If arguments are specified, char-
acters in remote filenames are translated during mput com-
mands and put commands issued without a specified remote tar-
get filename. If arguments are specified, characters in
local filenames are translated during 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 can 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
automatically log the user in to the FTP server (see below).
page file Retrieve file and display with the program specified by the
set pager option.
passive [auto]
Toggle passive mode (if no arguments are given). If auto is
given, act as if FTPMODE is set to `auto'. If passive mode
is turned on (default), ftp will send 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 con-
nection 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 lis-
tens on a port and sends that address to the remote server,
who connects back to it. Passive mode is useful when using
ftp through a gateway router or host that controls the direc-
tionality of traffic. (Note that though FTP servers are
required to support the PASV command by RFC 1123, some do
not.)
pdir [remote-path]
Perform dir [remote-path], and display the result with the
program specified by the set pager option.
pls [remote-path]
Perform ls [remote-path], and display the result with the
program specified by the set pager option.
pmlsd [remote-path]
Perform mlsd [remote-path], and display the result with the
program specified by the set pager option.
preserve Toggle preservation of modification times on retrieved files.
progress Toggle display of transfer progress bar. The progress bar
will be disabled for a transfer that has local-file as '-' or
a command that starts with `|'. Refer to FILE NAMING
CONVENTIONS for more information. Enabling progress disables
hash.
prompt Toggle interactive prompting. Interactive prompting occurs
during multiple file transfers to allow the user to selec-
tively 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.
When prompting is on, the following commands are available at
a prompt:
a Answer 'yes' to the current file, and automatically
answer `yes' to any remaining files for the current
command.
n Answer 'no', and do not transfer the file.
p Answer 'yes' to the current file, and turn off
prompt mode (as is 'prompt off' had been given).
q Terminate the current operation.
y Answer 'yes', and transfer the file.
? Display a help message.
Any other reponse will answer 'yes' to the current file.
proxy ftp-command
Execute 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 sec-
ondary control connection. Enter the command "proxy ?" to
see other FTP commands executable on the secondary connec-
tion. The following commands behave differently when pref-
aced by proxy: open will not define new macros during the
auto-login process, close will not erase existing macro defi-
nitions, get and mget transfer files from the host on the
primary control connection to the host on the secondary con-
trol 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 trans-
fers depend upon support of the FTP protocol PASV command by
the server on the secondary control 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 process-
ing 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.
rate direction [maximum [increment]]
Throttle the maximum transfer rate to maximum bytes/second.
If maximum is 0, disable the throttle.
direction can be one of:
all Both directions.
get Incoming transfers.
put Outgoing transfers.
maximum can by 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.
If maximum is not supplied, the current throttle rates are
displayed.
Note: rate is not yet implemented for ascii mode transfers.
rcvbuf size
Set the size of the socket receive buffer to size.
recv remote-file [local-file]
A synonym for get.
reget remote-file [local-file]
reget acts like get, except that if local-file exists and is
smaller than remote-file, local-file is presumed to be a par-
tially 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]
Set options on the remote FTP server for command to
command-options (whose absence is handled on a command-spe-
cific basis). Remote FTP commands known to support options
include: `MLST' (used for MLSD and MLST).
rename [from [to]]
Rename the file from on the remote machine, to the file to.
reset Clear reply queue. This command re-synchronizes com-
mand/reply sequencing with the remote FTP server. Resynchro-
nization might be necessary following a violation of the FTP
protocol by the remote server.
restart marker
Restart 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]
Request help from the remote FTP server. If a command-name
is specified it is supplied to the server as well.
rmdir directory-name
Delete a directory on the remote machine.
rstatus [remote-file]
With no arguments, show status of remote machine. If
remote-file is specified, show status of remote-file on
remote machine.
runique Toggle storing of files on the local system with unique file-
names. 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 message 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 establishing a connection
for each data transfer. The use of PORT commands can prevent
delays when performing 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 implementations which do ignore PORT commands
but, incorrectly, indicate they've been accepted.
set [option value]
Set option to value. If option and value are not given, dis-
play all of the options and their values. The currently sup-
ported options are:
anonpass Defaults to $FTPANONPASS
ftp_proxy Defaults to $ftp_proxy.
http_proxy Defaults to $http_proxy.
no_proxy Defaults to $no_proxy.
pager Defaults to $PAGER.
prompt Defaults to $FTPPROMPT.
rprompt Defaults to $FTPRPROMPT.
size remote-file
Return size of remote-file on remote machine.
sndbuf size
Set the size of the socket send buffer to size.
site arg1 arg2 ...
The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote FTP
server as a SITE command.
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. The remote FTP server must support FTP protocol STOU
command for successful completion. The remote server will
report unique name. Default value is off.
system Show the type of Operating System running on the remote
machine.
tenex Set the file transfer type to that needed to talk to TENEX
machines.
throttle A synonym for rate.
trace Toggle packet tracing.
type [type-name]
Set the file transfer type to type-name. If no type is spec-
ified, the current type is printed. The default type is net-
work ASCII.
umask [newmask]
Set the default umask on the remote server to newmask. If
newmask is omitted, the current umask is printed.
unset option
Unset option. Refer to set for more information.
usage command
Print the usage message for command.
user user-name [password [account]]
Identify yourself to the remote FTP server. If the password
is not specified and the server 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 speci-
fied, 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 automati-
cally 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 ver-
bose is on, when a file transfer completes, statistics
regarding the efficiency of the transfer are reported. By
default, verbose is on.
xferbuf size
Set the size of the socket send and receive buffers to size.
Cancelling a File Transfer
To cancel a file transfer, use the terminal interrupt key (usually Ctrl- C). Sending transfers will be immediately halted. Receiving transfers
will be 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 will not appear until the remote server has completed sending the requested file.
If the terminal interrupt key sequence is used whilst ftp is awaiting a reply from the remote server for the ABOR processing, then the connection will be 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 ftp commands are processed according to the following rules.
1. If the file name '-' is specified, the stdin (for reading) or stdout (for writing) is used.
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(3) 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 particularly 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" operation is used.
4. For mget commands and get commands with unspecified local file names, the local filename is the remote filename, which can be altered by a case, ntrans, or nmap setting. The resulting filename can 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 can be altered by a ntrans or nmap setting. The resulting filename can then be altered by the remote server if sunique is on.
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. The fol-
lowing tokens are recognized; they can 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 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 This 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 flag to disable auto-login.
login name
Identify a user on the remote machine. If this token is pre-
sent, the auto-login process will initiate 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 for any user other
than anonymous, ftp will cancel 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 pre-
sent, the auto-login process will supply 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 com-
mand functions. A macro is defined with the specified name;
its contents begin with the next .netrc line and continue until
a blank line (consecutive new-line characters) is encountered.
If a macro named init is defined, it is automatically executed
as the last step in the auto-login process.
COMMAND LINE EDITING
ftp supports interactive command line editing, via the editline(3) library. It is enabled with the edit command, and is enabled by default if input is from a tty. Previous lines can be recalled and edited with the arrow keys, and other GNU Emacs-style editing keys can be used as well.
The editline(3) library is configured with a .editrc file - refer to editrc(5) for more information.
An extra key binding is available to ftp to provide context sensitive command and filename completion (including remote file completion). To use this, bind a key to the editline(3) command ftp-complete. By default, this is bound to the TAB key.
COMMAND LINE PROMPT
By default, ftp 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 com-
mand input) with the set rprompt command.
The following formatting sequences are replaced by the given information:
%/ The current remote working directory.
%c[[0]n], %.[[0]n]
The trailing component of the current remote working direc-
tory, or n trailing components if a digit n is given. If n
begins with '0', the number of skipped components precede the
trailing component(s) in the format '/skippedtrailing'
(for '%c') or `...trailing' (for `%.').
%M The remote host name.
%m The remote host name, up to the first '.'.
%n The remote user name.
%% A single '%'.
ENVIRONMENT
ftp uses the following 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 ''.
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'.
HOME For default location of a .netrc file, if one exists.
PAGER Used by various commands to display files. Defaults to
more(1) 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).
http_proxy URL of HTTP proxy to use when making HTTP URL requests.
If proxy authentication is required and there is a user-
name and password in this URL, they will automatically be
used in the first attempt to authenticate to the proxy.
Note that the use of a username and password in ftp_proxy
and http_proxy can be incompatible with other programs
that use it (such as lynx(1) ).
no_proxy A space or comma separated list of hosts (or domains) for
which proxying is not to be used. Each entry can have an
optional trailing ":port", which restricts the matching to
connections to that port.
Correct execution of many commands depends upon proper behavior by the remote server.
An error in the treatment of carriage returns in the 4.2BSD ascii-mode transfer code has been corrected. This correction can result in incorrect transfers of binary files to and from 4.2BSD servers using the ascii type. Avoid this problem by using the binary image type.
ftp 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, ftp is unable to support your configuration.
“Happy is harder than money. Anyone who thinks money will make them happy, doesn’t have money ~ David Geffen
For basic ftp syntax see the main ftp page
getservbyname(3), editrc(5), services(5), ftpd(8)