ftp(1) BSD General Commands Manual ftp(1)

NAME

 ftp -- Internet file transfer program

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

 ftp is the user interface to the Internet standard File Transfer Proto-
 col. The program allows a user to transfer files to and from a remote
 network site.
 The last five arguments will fetch a file using the FTP or HTTP proto-
 cols, or by direct copying, into the current directory. This is ideal
 for scripts. Refer to AUTO-FETCHING FILES below for more information.
 Options may be specified at the command line, or to the command inter-
 preter.
 -4 Forces ftp to only use IPv4 addresses.
 -6 Forces ftp to only use IPv6 addresses.
 -A Force active mode ftp. By default, ftp will try to use pas-
 sive mode ftp and fall back to active mode if passive is not
 supported 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 prop-
 erly.
 -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
 ange-ftp 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 trans-
 fers.
 -n Restrains ftp from attempting ``auto-login'' upon initial
 connection for non auto-fetch transfers. 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 pass-
 word and an account with which to login. To override the
 auto-login for auto-fetch transfers, specify the username
 (and optionally, password) as appropriate.
 -N netrc Use netrc instead of ~/.netrc. Refer to THE .netrc FILE for
 more information.
 -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 fil-
 tering 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.
 -q quittime
 Quit if the connection has stalled for quittime seconds.
 -r wait Retry the connection attempt if it failed, pausing for wait
 seconds.
 -R Restart all non-proxied auto-fetches.
 -s srcaddr Uses srcaddr as the local IP address for all connections.
 -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 target 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
 foreground process). Forces ftp to show all responses from
 the remote server, as well as report on data transfer statis-
 tics.
 -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 may be specified on the
 command line. If this is done, ftp will immediately attempt to establish
 a connection to an FTP server on that host; otherwise, ftp will enter its
 command interpreter and await instructions from the user. When ftp is
 awaiting commands from the user the prompt `ftp>' is 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 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
 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 may contain single line-
 feeds; when an ascii type transfer is made, these linefeeds
 may be distinguished from a record delimiter only when cr is
 off.
 ftp_debug [ftp_debug-value]
 Toggle debugging mode. If an optional ftp_debug-value is
 specified it is used to set the debugging level. When debug-
 ging 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 (and only
 supported) format is ``non-print''.
 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, mput, and
 mreget. 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, mget, and mreget,
 each remote file name is expanded separately on the remote
 machine and the lists are not merged. Expansion of a direc-
 tory 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(1)  archive of the sub-
 tree (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. Macro names can be a maxi-
 mum of 8 characters. Macros are only applicable to the cur-
 rent 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 `$' and `\' as special charac-
 ters. A `$' 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 invoca-
 tion command line, on the second pass it is replaced by the
 second argument, and so on. A `\' followed by any character
 is replaced by that character. Use the `\' to prevent spe-
 cial treatment of the `$'.
 mdelete [remote-files]
 Delete the remote-files on the remote machine.
 mdir remote-files local-file
 Like dir, except multiple remote files may be specified. If
 interactive prompting is on, ftp will prompt the user to 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 may 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 (and
 only supported) mode is ``stream''.
 modtime remote-file
 Show the last modification time of the file on the remote
 machine, in RFC2822 format.
 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.
 mreget remote-files
 As per mget, but performs a reget instead of get.
 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 may
 have already been processed according to the ntrans and case
 settings). Variable templating is accomplished by including
 the sequences ``1ドル'', ``2ドル'', ... ``9ドル'' 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ドル.2ドル and the remote file name "mydata.data",
 1ドル would have the value "mydata", and 2ドル would have the value
 "data". The outpattern determines the resulting mapped file-
 name. The sequences ``1ドル'', ``2ドル'', ... ``9ドル'' are replaced
 by any value resulting from the inpattern template. The
 sequence ``0ドル'' is replaced by the original filename. Addi-
 tionally, 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ドル.2ドル.3ドル [1,ドル2ドル].[2,ドル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 may be included in
 outpattern, as in the example:
 nmap 1ドル sed s/ *$// > 1ドル
 Use the `\' character to prevent special treatment of the
 `$', `[', `]', 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 may be supplied, in which case, ftp will
 attempt to contact an FTP server at that port. If the set
 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 RFC1123, 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 response 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 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.
 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 may 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.
 site arg1 arg2 ...
 The arguments specified are sent, verbatim, to the remote FTP
 server as a SITE command.
 size remote-file
 Return size of remote-file on remote machine.
 sndbuf size
 Set the size of the socket send buffer to size.
 status Show the current status of ftp.
 struct struct-name
 Set the file transfer structure to struct-name. The default
 (and only supported) structure is ``file''.
 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.
 ? [command]
 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 (e.g., 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
 If ftp receives a SIGINFO (see the ``status'' argument of stty(1) ) or
 SIGQUIT signal whilst a transfer is in progress, the current transfer
 rate statistics will be written to the standard error output, in the same
 format as the standard completion message.

AUTO-FETCHING FILES

 In addition to standard commands, this version of ftp supports an auto-
 fetch feature. To enable auto-fetch, simply pass the list of host-
 names/files on the command line.
 The following formats are valid syntax for an auto-fetch element:
 [user@]host:[path][/]
 ``Classic'' FTP format.
 If path contains a glob character and globbing is enabled, (see
 glob), then the equivalent of `mget path' is performed.
 If the directory component of path contains no globbing characters,
 it is stored locally with the name basename (see basename(1) ) 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. If set ftp_proxy isn't defined and user
 is given, login as user. In this case, use password if supplied,
 otherwise prompt the user for one.
 If a suffix of `;type=A' or `;type=I' is supplied, then the trans-
 fer type will take place as ascii or binary (respectively). The
 default transfer type is binary.
 In order to be compliant with RFC3986, ftp interprets the path part
 of an ``ftp://'' auto-fetch URL as follows:
 o The `/' immediately after the host[:port] is interpreted as a
 separator before the path, and not as part of the path itself.
 o The path is interpreted as a `/'-separated list of name compo-
 nents. For all but the last such component, ftp performs the
 equivalent of a cd command. For the last path component, ftp
 performs the equivalent of a get command.
 o Empty name components, which result from `//' within the path,
 or from an extra `/' at the beginning of the path, will cause
 the equivalent of a cd command without a directory name. This
 is unlikely to be useful.
 o Any `%XX' codes (per RFC3986) 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:
 o 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 sup-
 ports 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''
 o 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''.
 o 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. If set http_proxy
 is defined, it is used as a URL to an HTTP proxy server. If HTTP
 authorization is required to retrieve path, and `user' (and option-
 ally `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.
 about:topic
 Display information regarding topic; no file is retrieved for this
 auto-fetched element. Supported values include:
 about:ftp Information about ftp.
 about:version The version of ftp. Useful to provide when report-
 ing problems.
 Unless noted otherwise above, and -o output is not given, the file is
 stored in the current directory as the basename(1)  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 ftp will connect to the site and cd to the directory
 given as the path, and leave the user in interactive mode ready for fur-
 ther input. This will 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.
 If -R is given, all auto-fetches that don't go via the FTP or HTTP prox-
 ies will be 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 will be prompted to
 enter a username and password to authenticate with.
 When specifying IPv6 numeric addresses in a URL, you need to surround the
 address in square brackets. E.g.: ``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 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 argu-
 ment 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) ; see
 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 may be
 altered by a case, ntrans, or nmap setting. The resulting filename
 may then be altered if runique is on.
 5. For mput commands and put commands with unspecified remote file
 names, the remote filename is the local filename, which may be
 altered by a ntrans or nmap setting. The resulting filename may
 then be altered by the remote server if sunique is on.

FILE TRANSFER PARAMETERS

 The FTP specification specifies many parameters which may affect a file
 transfer. The type may be one of ``ascii'', ``image'' (binary),
 ``ebcdic'', and ``local byte size'' (for PDP-10's and PDP-20's mostly).
 ftp supports the ascii and image types of file transfer, plus local byte
 size 8 for tenex mode transfers.
 ftp supports only the default values for the remaining file transfer
 parameters: mode, form, and struct.

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 environ-
 ment variable. The following tokens are recognized; they may be sepa-
 rated 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
 present, 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 abort the auto-login process if the
 .netrc is readable by anyone besides the user.
 account string
 Supply an additional account password. If this token is
 present, the auto-login process will supply the specified
 string if the remote server requires an additional account
 password, or the auto-login process will initiate an ACCT com-
 mand 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.
 Like the other tokens in the .netrc file, a macdef is applica-
 ble 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 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 may 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 ``/<number>trailing'' (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''.
 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(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).
 See http_proxy for further notes about proxy use.
 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.
 If ``unsafe'' URL characters are required in the username
 or password (for example `@' or `/'), encode them with
 RFC3986 `%XX' encoding.
 Note that the use of a username and password in ftp_proxy
 and http_proxy may be incompatible with other programs
 that use it (such as lynx(1)).
 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 ftp 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 will need to disable extended passive mode with epsv4 off. See
 the above section The .netrc File for an example of how to make this
 automatic.

SEE ALSO

 getservbyname(3) , editrc(5) , services(5) , ftpd(8) 

STANDARDS

 ftp attempts to be compliant with:
 RFC0959 File Transfer Protocol
 RFC1123 Requirements for Internet Hosts - Application and Support
 RFC1635 How to Use Anonymous FTP
 RFC2389 Feature negotiation mechanism for the File Transfer
 Protocol
 RFC2428 FTP Extensions for IPv6 and NATs
 RFC2616 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1
 RFC2822 Internet Message Format
 RFC3659 Extensions to FTP
 RFC3986 Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)

HISTORY

 The ftp command appeared in 4.2BSD.
 Various features such as command line editing, context sensitive command
 and file completion, dynamic progress bar, automatic fetching of files
 and URLs, modification time preservation, transfer rate throttling, con-
 figurable command line prompt, and other enhancements over the standard
 BSD ftp were implemented in NetBSD 1.3 and later releases by Luke Mewburn
 <lukem@NetBSD.org>.
 IPv6 support was added by the WIDE/KAME project (but may not be present
 in all non-NetBSD versions of this program, depending if the operating
 system supports IPv6 in a similar manner to KAME).

BUGS

 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 may result in incor-
 rect 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.
BSD July 18, 2007 BSD