1 \define{versionidpsftp} \versionid $Id$
3 \C{psftp} Using \i{PSFTP} to transfer files securely
5 \i{PSFTP}, the PuTTY SFTP client, is a tool for \i{transferring files}
6 securely between computers using an SSH connection.
8 PSFTP differs from PSCP in the following ways:
10 \b PSCP should work on virtually every SSH server. PSFTP uses the
11 new \i{SFTP} protocol, which is a feature of SSH-2 only. (PSCP will also
12 use this protocol if it can, but there is an SSH-1 equivalent it can
13 fall back to if it cannot.)
15 \b PSFTP allows you to run an interactive file transfer session,
16 much like the Windows \i\c{ftp} program. You can list the contents of
17 directories, browse around the file system, issue multiple \c{get}
18 and \c{put} commands, and eventually log out. By contrast, PSCP is
19 designed to do a single file transfer operation and immediately
22 \H{psftp-starting} Starting PSFTP
24 The usual way to start PSFTP is from a command prompt, much like
25 PSCP. To do this, it will need either to be on your \i{\c{PATH}} or
26 in your current directory. To add the directory containing PSFTP to
27 your \c{PATH} environment variable, type into the console window:
29 \c set PATH=C:\path\to\putty\directory;%PATH%
31 Unlike PSCP, however, PSFTP has no complex command-line syntax; you
32 just specify a host name and perhaps a user name:
34 \c psftp server.example.com
38 \c psftp fred@server.example.com
40 Alternatively, if you just type \c{psftp} on its own (or
41 double-click the PSFTP icon in the Windows GUI), you will see the
42 PSFTP prompt, and a message telling you PSFTP has not connected to
46 \c psftp: no hostname specified; use "open host.name" to connect
49 At this point you can type \c{open server.example.com} or \c{open
50 fred@server.example.com} to start a session.
52 PSFTP accepts all the general command line options supported by the
53 PuTTY tools, except the ones which make no sense in a file transfer
54 utility. See \k{using-general-opts} for a description of these
55 options. (The ones not supported by PSFTP are clearly marked.)
57 PSFTP also supports some of its own options. The following sections
58 describe PSFTP's specific command-line options.
60 \S{psftp-option-b} \I{-b-PSFTP}\c{-b}: specify a file containing batch commands
62 In normal operation, PSFTP is an interactive program which displays
63 a command line and accepts commands from the keyboard.
65 If you need to do automated tasks with PSFTP, you would probably
66 prefer to \I{batch scripts in PSFTP}specify a set of commands in
67 advance and have them executed automatically. The \c{-b} option
68 allows you to do this. You use it with a file name containing batch
69 commands. For example, you might create a file called \c{myscript.scr}
70 containing lines like this:
72 \c cd /home/ftp/users/jeff
74 \c ren jam.tar.gz jam-old.tar.gz
76 \c chmod a+r jam.tar.gz
78 and then you could run the script by typing
80 \c psftp user@hostname -b myscript.scr
82 When you run a batch script in this way, PSFTP will abort the script
83 if any command fails to complete successfully. To change this
84 behaviour, you can add the \c{-be} option (\k{psftp-option-be}).
86 PSFTP will terminate after it finishes executing the batch script.
88 \S{psftp-option-bc} \I{-bc-PSFTP}\c{-bc}: display batch commands as they are run
90 The \c{-bc} option alters what PSFTP displays while processing a
91 batch script specified with \c{-b}. With the \c{-bc} option, PSFTP
92 will display prompts and commands just as if the commands had been
93 typed at the keyboard. So instead of seeing this:
95 \c C:\>psftp fred@hostname -b batchfile
96 \c Sent username "fred"
97 \c Remote working directory is /home/fred
98 \c Listing directory /home/fred/lib
99 \c drwxrwsr-x 4 fred fred 1024 Sep 6 10:42 .
100 \c drwxr-sr-x 25 fred fred 2048 Dec 14 09:36 ..
101 \c drwxrwsr-x 3 fred fred 1024 Apr 17 2000 jed
102 \c lrwxrwxrwx 1 fred fred 24 Apr 17 2000 timber
103 \c drwxrwsr-x 2 fred fred 1024 Mar 13 2000 trn
107 \c C:\>psftp fred@hostname -bc -b batchfile
108 \c Sent username "fred"
109 \c Remote working directory is /home/fred
111 \c Listing directory /home/fred/lib
112 \c drwxrwsr-x 4 fred fred 1024 Sep 6 10:42 .
113 \c drwxr-sr-x 25 fred fred 2048 Dec 14 09:36 ..
114 \c drwxrwsr-x 3 fred fred 1024 Apr 17 2000 jed
115 \c lrwxrwxrwx 1 fred fred 24 Apr 17 2000 timber
116 \c drwxrwsr-x 2 fred fred 1024 Mar 13 2000 trn
119 \S{psftp-option-be} \I{-be-PSFTP}\c{-be}: continue batch processing on errors
121 When running a batch file, this additional option causes PSFTP to
122 continue processing even if a command fails to complete successfully.
124 You might want this to happen if you wanted to delete a file and
125 didn't care if it was already not present, for example.
127 \S{psftp-usage-options-batch} \I{-batch-PSFTP}\c{-batch}: avoid
130 If you use the \c{-batch} option, PSFTP will never give an
131 interactive prompt while establishing the connection. If the
132 server's host key is invalid, for example (see \k{gs-hostkey}), then
133 the connection will simply be abandoned instead of asking you what
136 This may help PSFTP's behaviour when it is used in automated
137 scripts: using \c{-batch}, if something goes wrong at connection
138 time, the batch job will fail rather than hang.
140 \H{psftp-commands} Running PSFTP
142 Once you have started your PSFTP session, you will see a \c{psftp>}
143 prompt. You can now type commands to perform file-transfer
144 functions. This section lists all the available commands.
146 \S{psftp-quoting} \I{quoting, in PSFTP}General quoting rules for PSFTP commands
148 Most PSFTP commands are considered by the PSFTP command interpreter
149 as a sequence of words, separated by spaces. For example, the
150 command \c{ren oldfilename newfilename} splits up into three words:
151 \c{ren} (the command name), \c{oldfilename} (the name of the file to
152 be renamed), and \c{newfilename} (the new name to give the file).
154 Sometimes you will need to specify \I{spaces in filenames}file names
155 that \e{contain} spaces. In order to do this, you can surround
156 the file name with double quotes. This works equally well for
157 local file names and remote file names:
159 \c psftp> get "spacey file name.txt" "save it under this name.txt"
161 The double quotes themselves will not appear as part of the file
162 names; they are removed by PSFTP and their only effect is to stop
163 the spaces inside them from acting as word separators.
165 If you need to \e{use} a double quote (on some types of remote
166 system, such as Unix, you are allowed to use double quotes in file
167 names), you can do this by doubling it. This works both inside and
168 outside double quotes. For example, this command
170 \c psftp> ren ""this"" "a file with ""quotes"" in it"
172 will take a file whose current name is \c{"this"} (with a double
173 quote character at the beginning and the end) and rename it to a
174 file whose name is \c{a file with "quotes" in it}.
176 (The one exception to the PSFTP quoting rules is the \c{!} command,
177 which passes its command line straight to Windows without splitting
178 it up into words at all. See \k{psftp-cmd-pling}.)
180 \S{psftp-wildcards} Wildcards in PSFTP
182 Several commands in PSFTP support \q{\i{wildcards}} to select multiple
185 For \e{local} file specifications (such as the first argument to
186 \c{put}), wildcard rules for the local operating system are used. For
187 instance, PSFTP running on Windows might require the use of \c{*.*}
188 where PSFTP on Unix would need \c{*}.
190 For \e{remote} file specifications (such as the first argument to
191 \c{get}), PSFTP uses a standard wildcard syntax (similar to \i{POSIX}
194 \b \c{*} matches any sequence of characters (including a zero-length
197 \b \c{?} matches exactly one character.
199 \b \c{[abc]} matches exactly one character which can be \cw{a},
204 \c{[a-z]} matches any character in the range \cw{a} to \cw{z}.
206 \c{[^abc]} matches a single character that is \e{not} \cw{a}, \cw{b},
209 Special cases: \c{[-a]} matches a literal hyphen (\cw{-}) or \cw{a};
210 \c{[^-a]} matches all other characters. \c{[a^]} matches a literal
211 caret (\cw{^}) or \cw{a}.
215 \b \c{\\} (backslash) before any of the above characters (or itself)
216 removes that character's special meaning.
218 A leading period (\cw{.}) on a filename is not treated specially,
219 unlike in some Unix contexts; \c{get *} will fetch all files, whether
220 or not they start with a leading period.
222 \S{psftp-cmd-open} The \c{open} command: start a session
224 If you started PSFTP by double-clicking in the GUI, or just by
225 typing \c{psftp} at the command line, you will need to open a
226 connection to an SFTP server before you can issue any other
227 commands (except \c{help} and \c{quit}).
229 To create a connection, type \c{open host.name}, or if you need to
230 specify a user name as well you can type \c{open user@host.name}.
231 You can optionally specify a port as well:
232 \c{open user@host.name 22}.
234 Once you have issued this command, you will not be able to issue it
235 again, \e{even} if the command fails (for example, if you mistype
236 the host name or the connection times out). So if the connection is
237 not opened successfully, PSFTP will terminate immediately.
239 \S{psftp-cmd-quit} The \c{quit} command: end your session
241 When you have finished your session, type the command \c{quit} to
242 close the connection, terminate PSFTP and return to the command line
243 (or just close the PSFTP console window if you started it from the
246 You can also use the \c{bye} and \c{exit} commands, which have
247 exactly the same effect.
249 \S{psftp-cmd-close} The \c{close} command: close your connection
251 If you just want to close the network connection but keep PSFTP
252 running, you can use the \c{close} command. You can then use the
253 \c{open} command to open a new connection.
255 \S{psftp-cmd-help} The \c{help} command: get quick online help
257 If you type \c{help}, PSFTP will give a short list of the available
260 If you type \c{help} with a command name - for example, \c{help get}
261 - then PSFTP will give a short piece of help on that particular
264 \S{psftp-cmd-cd} The \c{cd} and \c{pwd} commands: changing the
265 remote \i{working directory}
267 PSFTP maintains a notion of your \q{working directory} on the
268 server. This is the default directory that other commands will
269 operate on. For example, if you type \c{get filename.dat} then PSFTP
270 will look for \c{filename.dat} in your remote working directory on
273 To change your remote working directory, use the \c{cd} command. If
274 you don't provide an argument, \c{cd} will return you to your home
275 directory on the server (more precisely, the remote directory you were
276 in at the start of the connection).
278 To display your current remote working directory, type \c{pwd}.
280 \S{psftp-cmd-lcd} The \c{lcd} and \c{lpwd} commands: changing the
281 local \i{working directory}
283 As well as having a working directory on the remote server, PSFTP
284 also has a working directory on your local machine (just like any
285 other Windows process). This is the default local directory that
286 other commands will operate on. For example, if you type \c{get
287 filename.dat} then PSFTP will save the resulting file as
288 \c{filename.dat} in your local working directory.
290 To change your local working directory, use the \c{lcd} command. To
291 display your current local working directory, type \c{lpwd}.
293 \S{psftp-cmd-get} The \c{get} command: fetch a file from the server
295 To \i{download a file} from the server and store it on your local PC,
296 you use the \c{get} command.
298 In its simplest form, you just use this with a file name:
302 If you want to store the file locally under a different name,
303 specify the local file name after the remote one:
305 \c get myfile.dat newname.dat
307 This will fetch the file on the server called \c{myfile.dat}, but
308 will save it to your local machine under the name \c{newname.dat}.
310 To fetch an entire directory \i{recursive}ly, you can use the \c{-r}
314 \c get -r mydir newname
316 (If you want to fetch a file whose name starts with a hyphen, you
317 may have to use the \c{--} special argument, which stops \c{get}
318 from interpreting anything as a switch after it. For example,
319 \cq{get -- -silly-name-}.)
321 \S{psftp-cmd-put} The \c{put} command: send a file to the server
323 To \i{upload a file} to the server from your local PC, you use the
326 In its simplest form, you just use this with a file name:
330 If you want to store the file remotely under a different name,
331 specify the remote file name after the local one:
333 \c put myfile.dat newname.dat
335 This will send the local file called \c{myfile.dat}, but will store
336 it on the server under the name \c{newname.dat}.
338 To send an entire directory \i{recursive}ly, you can use the \c{-r}
342 \c put -r mydir newname
344 (If you want to send a file whose name starts with a hyphen, you may
345 have to use the \c{--} special argument, which stops \c{put} from
346 interpreting anything as a switch after it. For example, \cq{put --
349 \S{psftp-cmd-mgetput} The \c{mget} and \c{mput} commands: fetch or
352 \c{mget} works almost exactly like \c{get}, except that it allows
353 you to specify more than one file to fetch at once. You can do this
356 \b by giving two or more explicit file names (\cq{mget file1.txt
359 \b by using a wildcard (\cq{mget *.txt}).
361 Every argument to \c{mget} is treated as the name of a file to fetch
362 (unlike \c{get}, which will interpret at most one argument like
363 that, and a second argument will be treated as an alternative name
364 under which to store the retrieved file), or a \i{wildcard} expression
365 matching more than one file.
367 The \c{-r} and \c{--} options from \c{get} are also available with
370 \c{mput} is similar to \c{put}, with the same differences.
372 \S{psftp-cmd-regetput} The \c{reget} and \c{reput} commands:
373 \i{resuming file transfers}
375 If a file transfer fails half way through, and you end up with half
376 the file stored on your disk, you can resume the file transfer using
377 the \c{reget} and \c{reput} commands. These work exactly like the
378 \c{get} and \c{put} commands, but they check for the presence of the
379 half-written destination file and start transferring from where the
380 last attempt left off.
382 The syntax of \c{reget} and \c{reput} is exactly the same as the
383 syntax of \c{get} and \c{put}:
386 \c reget myfile.dat newname.dat
389 These commands are intended mainly for resuming interrupted transfers.
390 They assume that the remote file or directory structure has not
391 changed in any way; if there have been changes, you may end up with
392 corrupted files. In particular, the \c{-r} option will not pick up
393 changes to files or directories already transferred in full.
395 \S{psftp-cmd-dir} The \c{dir} command: \I{listing files}list remote files
397 To list the files in your remote working directory, just type
400 You can also list the contents of a different directory by typing
401 \c{dir} followed by the directory name:
406 And you can list a subset of the contents of a directory by
407 providing a wildcard:
409 \c dir /home/fred/*.txt
412 The \c{ls} command works exactly the same way as \c{dir}.
414 \S{psftp-cmd-chmod} The \c{chmod} command: change permissions on
417 \I{changing permissions on files}PSFTP
418 allows you to modify the file permissions on files and
419 directories on the server. You do this using the \c{chmod} command,
420 which works very much like the Unix \c{chmod} command.
422 The basic syntax is \c{chmod modes file}, where \c{modes} represents
423 a modification to the file permissions, and \c{file} is the filename
424 to modify. You can specify multiple files or wildcards. For example:
426 \c chmod go-rwx,u+w privatefile
428 \c chmod 640 groupfile1 groupfile2
430 The \c{modes} parameter can be a set of octal digits in the Unix
431 style. (If you don't know what this means, you probably don't want
432 to be using it!) Alternatively, it can be a list of permission
433 modifications, separated by commas. Each modification consists of:
435 \b The people affected by the modification. This can be \c{u} (the
436 owning user), \c{g} (members of the owning group), or \c{o}
437 (everybody else - \q{others}), or some combination of those. It can
438 also be \c{a} (\q{all}) to affect everybody at once.
440 \b A \c{+} or \c{-} sign, indicating whether permissions are to be
443 \b The actual permissions being added or removed. These can be
444 \I{read permission}\c{r} (permission to read the file),
445 \I{write permission}\c{w} (permission to write to the file), and
446 \I{execute permission}\c{x} (permission to execute the file, or in
447 the case of a directory, permission to access files within the
450 So the above examples would do:
452 \b The first example: \c{go-rwx} removes read, write and execute
453 permissions for members of the owning group and everybody else (so
454 the only permissions left are the ones for the file owner). \c{u+w}
455 adds write permission for the file owner.
457 \b The second example: \c{a+r} adds read permission for everybody to
458 all files and directories starting with \q{public}.
460 In addition to all this, there are a few extra special cases for
461 \i{Unix} systems. On non-Unix systems these are unlikely to be useful:
463 \b You can specify \c{u+s} and \c{u-s} to add or remove the Unix
464 \i{set-user-ID bit}. This is typically only useful for special purposes;
465 refer to your Unix documentation if you're not sure about it.
467 \b You can specify \c{g+s} and \c{g-s} to add or remove the Unix
468 \i{set-group-ID bit}. On a file, this works similarly to the set-user-ID
469 bit (see your Unix documentation again); on a directory it ensures
470 that files created in the directory are accessible by members of the
471 group that owns the directory.
473 \b You can specify \c{+t} and \c{-t} to add or remove the Unix
474 \q{\i{sticky bit}}. When applied to a directory, this means that the
475 owner of a file in that directory can delete the file (whereas
476 normally only the owner of the \e{directory} would be allowed to).
478 \S{psftp-cmd-del} The \c{del} command: delete remote files
480 To \I{deleting files}delete a file on the server, type \c{del} and
481 then the filename or filenames:
484 \c del file1.txt file2.txt
487 Files will be deleted without further prompting, even if multiple files
490 \c{del} will only delete files. You cannot use it to delete
491 directories; use \c{rmdir} for that.
493 The \c{rm} command works exactly the same way as \c{del}.
495 \S{psftp-cmd-mkdir} The \c{mkdir} command: create remote directories
497 To \i{create a directory} on the server, type \c{mkdir} and then the
502 You can specify multiple directories to create at once:
504 \c mkdir dir1 dir2 dir3
506 \S{psftp-cmd-rmdir} The \c{rmdir} command: remove remote directories
508 To \i{remove a directory} on the server, type \c{rmdir} and then the
509 directory name or names:
512 \c rmdir *.old ancient
514 Directories will be deleted without further prompting, even if
515 multiple directories are specified.
517 Most SFTP servers will probably refuse to remove a directory if the
518 directory has anything in it, so you will need to delete the
521 \S{psftp-cmd-mv} The \c{mv} command: move and \i{rename remote files}
523 To rename a single file on the server, type \c{mv}, then the current
524 file name, and then the new file name:
526 \c mv oldfile newname
528 You can also move the file into a different directory and change the
531 \c mv oldfile dir/newname
533 To move one or more files into an existing subdirectory, specify the
534 files (using wildcards if desired), and then the destination
538 \c mv file1 dir1/file2 dir2
541 The \c{rename} and \c{ren} commands work exactly the same way as
544 \S{psftp-cmd-pling} The \c{!} command: run a \i{local Windows command}
546 You can run local Windows commands using the \c{!} command. This is
547 the only PSFTP command that is not subject to the command quoting
548 rules given in \k{psftp-quoting}. If any command line begins with
549 the \c{!} character, then the rest of the line will be passed
550 straight to Windows without further translation.
552 For example, if you want to move an existing copy of a file out of
553 the way before downloading an updated version, you might type:
555 \c psftp> !ren myfile.dat myfile.bak
556 \c psftp> get myfile.dat
558 using the Windows \c{ren} command to rename files on your local PC.
560 \H{psftp-pubkey} Using \i{public key authentication} with PSFTP
562 Like PuTTY, PSFTP can authenticate using a public key instead of a
563 password. There are three ways you can do this.
565 Firstly, PSFTP can use PuTTY saved sessions in place of hostnames.
566 So you might do this:
568 \b Run PuTTY, and create a PuTTY saved session (see
569 \k{config-saving}) which specifies your private key file (see
570 \k{config-ssh-privkey}). You will probably also want to specify a
571 username to log in as (see \k{config-username}).
573 \b In PSFTP, you can now use the name of the session instead of a
574 hostname: type \c{psftp sessionname}, where \c{sessionname} is
575 replaced by the name of your saved session.
577 Secondly, you can supply the name of a private key file on the command
578 line, with the \c{-i} option. See \k{using-cmdline-identity} for more
581 Thirdly, PSFTP will attempt to authenticate using Pageant if Pageant
582 is running (see \k{pageant}). So you would do this:
584 \b Ensure Pageant is running, and has your private key stored in it.
586 \b Specify a user and host name to PSFTP as normal. PSFTP will
587 automatically detect Pageant and try to use the keys within it.
589 For more general information on public-key authentication, see