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1 | \versionid $Id: psftp.but,v 1.5 2002/08/07 19:20:06 simon Exp $ |
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2 | |
3 | \C{psftp} Using PSFTP to transfer files securely |
4 | |
5 | \i{PSFTP}, the PuTTY SFTP client, is a tool for transferring files |
6 | securely between computers using an SSH connection. |
7 | |
8 | PSFTP differs from PSCP in the following ways: |
9 | |
10 | \b PSCP should work on virtually every SSH server. PSFTP uses the |
11 | new 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.) |
14 | |
15 | \b PSFTP allows you to run an interactive file transfer session, |
16 | much like the Windows \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 |
20 | terminate. |
21 | |
22 | \H{psftp-starting} Starting PSFTP |
23 | |
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: |
28 | |
29 | \c set PATH=C:\path\to\putty\directory;%PATH% |
30 | |
31 | Unlike PSCP, however, PSFTP has no complex command-line syntax; you |
32 | just specify a host name and perhaps a user name: |
33 | |
34 | \c psftp server.example.com |
35 | |
36 | or perhaps |
37 | |
38 | \c psftp fred@server.example.com |
39 | |
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 |
43 | any server: |
44 | |
45 | \c C:\>psftp |
46 | \c psftp: no hostname specified; use "open host.name" to connect |
47 | \c psftp> |
48 | |
49 | At this point you can type \c{open server.example.com} or \c{open |
50 | fred@server.example.com} to start a session. |
51 | |
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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.) |
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56 | |
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57 | PSFTP also supports some of its own options. The following sections |
58 | describe PSFTP's specific command-line options. |
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59 | |
60 | \S{psftp-option-b} \c{-b}: specify a file containing batch commands |
61 | |
62 | In normal operation, PSFTP is an interactive program which displays |
63 | a command line and accepts commands from the keyboard. |
64 | |
65 | If you need to do automated tasks with PSFTP, you would probably |
66 | prefer to specify a set of commands in advance and have them |
67 | executed automatically. The \c{-b} option allows you to do this. You |
68 | use it with a file name containing batch commands. For example, you |
69 | might create a file called \c{myscript.scr} containing lines like |
70 | this: |
71 | |
72 | \c cd /home/ftp/users/jeff |
73 | \c del jam-old.tar.gz |
74 | \c ren jam.tar.gz jam-old.tar.gz |
75 | \c put jam.tar.gz |
76 | \c chmod a+r jam.tar.gz |
77 | \c quit |
78 | |
79 | and then you could run the script by typing |
80 | |
81 | \c psftp user@hostname -b myscript.scr |
82 | |
83 | When you run a batch script in this way, PSFTP will abort the script |
84 | if any command fails to complete successfully. To change this |
85 | behaviour, you can use the \c{-be} option (\k{psftp-option-be}). |
86 | |
87 | \S{psftp-option-bc} \c{-bc}: display batch commands as they are run |
88 | |
89 | The \c{-bc} option alters what PSFTP displays while processing a |
90 | batch script. With the \c{-bc} option, PSFTP will display prompts |
91 | and commands just as if the commands had been typed at the keyboard. |
92 | So instead of seeing this: |
93 | |
94 | \c Sent username "fred" |
95 | \c Remote working directory is /home/fred |
96 | \c Listing directory /home/fred/lib |
97 | \c drwxrwsr-x 4 fred fred 1024 Sep 6 10:42 . |
98 | \c drwxr-sr-x 25 fred fred 2048 Dec 14 09:36 .. |
99 | \c drwxrwsr-x 3 fred fred 1024 Apr 17 2000 jed |
100 | \c lrwxrwxrwx 1 fred fred 24 Apr 17 2000 timber |
101 | \c drwxrwsr-x 2 fred fred 1024 Mar 13 2000 trn |
102 | |
103 | you might see this: |
104 | |
105 | \c Sent username "fred" |
106 | \c Remote working directory is /home/fred |
107 | \c psftp> dir lib |
108 | \c Listing directory /home/fred/lib |
109 | \c drwxrwsr-x 4 fred fred 1024 Sep 6 10:42 . |
110 | \c drwxr-sr-x 25 fred fred 2048 Dec 14 09:36 .. |
111 | \c drwxrwsr-x 3 fred fred 1024 Apr 17 2000 jed |
112 | \c lrwxrwxrwx 1 fred fred 24 Apr 17 2000 timber |
113 | \c drwxrwsr-x 2 fred fred 1024 Mar 13 2000 trn |
114 | \c psftp> quit |
115 | |
116 | \S{psftp-option-be} \c{-be}: continue batch processing on errors |
117 | |
118 | When running a batch file, this option causes PSFTP to continue |
119 | processing even if a command fails to complete successfully. |
120 | |
121 | You might want this to happen if you wanted to delete a file and |
122 | didn't care if it was already not present, for example. |
123 | |
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124 | \S{psftp-usage-options-batch}\c{-batch}: avoid interactive prompts |
125 | |
126 | If you use the \c{-batch} option, PSFTP will never give an |
127 | interactive prompt while establishing the connection. If the |
128 | server's host key is invalid, for example (see \k{gs-hostkey}), then |
129 | the connection will simply be abandoned instead of asking you what |
130 | to do next. |
131 | |
132 | This may help PSFTP's behaviour when it is used in automated |
133 | scripts: using \c{-batch}, if something goes wrong at connection |
134 | time, the batch job will fail rather than hang. |
135 | |
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136 | \H{psftp-commands} Running PSFTP |
137 | |
138 | Once you have started your PSFTP session, you will see a \c{psftp>} |
139 | prompt. You can now type commands to perform file-transfer |
140 | functions. This section lists all the available commands. |
141 | |
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142 | \S{psftp-quoting} General quoting rules for PSFTP commands |
143 | |
144 | Most PSFTP commands are considered by the PSFTP command interpreter |
145 | as a sequence of words, separated by spaces. For example, the |
146 | command \c{ren oldfilename newfilename} splits up into three words: |
147 | \c{ren} (the command name), \c{oldfilename} (the name of the file to |
148 | be renamed), and \c{newfilename} (the new name to give the file). |
149 | |
150 | Sometimes you will need to specify file names that \e{contain} |
151 | spaces. In order to do this, you can surround the file name with |
152 | double quotes. This works equally well for local file names and |
153 | remote file names: |
154 | |
155 | \c psftp> get "spacey file name.txt" "save it under this name.txt" |
156 | |
157 | The double quotes themselves will not appear as part of the file |
158 | names; they are removed by PSFTP and their only effect is to stop |
159 | the spaces inside them from acting as word separators. |
160 | |
161 | If you need to \e{use} a double quote (on some types of remote |
162 | system, such as Unix, you are allowed to use double quotes in file |
163 | names), you can do this by doubling it. This works both inside and |
164 | outside double quotes. For example, this command |
165 | |
166 | \c psftp> ren ""this"" "a file with ""quotes"" in it" |
167 | |
168 | will take a file whose current name is \c{"this"} (with a double |
169 | quote character at the beginning and the end) and rename it to a |
170 | file whose name is \c{a file with "quotes" in it}. |
171 | |
172 | (The one exception to the PSFTP quoting rules is the \c{!} command, |
173 | which passes its command line straight to Windows without splitting |
174 | it up into words at all. See \k{psftp-cmd-pling}.) |
175 | |
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176 | \S{psftp-cmd-open} The \c{open} command: start a session |
177 | |
178 | If you started PSFTP by double-clicking in the GUI, or just by |
179 | typing \c{psftp} at the command line, you will need to open a |
180 | connection to an SFTP server before you can issue any other |
181 | commands (except \c{help} and \c{quit}). |
182 | |
183 | To create a connection, type \c{open host.name}, or if you need to |
184 | specify a user name as well you can type \c{open user@host.name}. |
185 | |
186 | Once you have issued this command, you will not be able to issue it |
187 | again, \e{even} if the command fails (for example, if you mistype |
188 | the host name or the connection times out). So if the connection is |
189 | not opened successfully, PSFTP will terminate immediately. |
190 | |
191 | \S{psftp-cmd-quit} The \c{quit} command: end your session |
192 | |
193 | When you have finished your session, type the command \c{quit} to |
194 | terminate PSFTP and return to the command line (or just close the |
195 | PSFTP console window if you started it from the GUI). |
196 | |
197 | You can also use the \c{bye} and \c{exit} commands, which have |
198 | exactly the same effect. |
199 | |
200 | \S{psftp-cmd-help} The \c{help} command: get quick online help |
201 | |
202 | If you type \c{help}, PSFTP will give a short list of the available |
203 | commands. |
204 | |
205 | If you type \c{help} with a command name - for example, \c{help get} |
206 | - then PSFTP will give a short piece of help on that particular |
207 | command. |
208 | |
209 | \S{psftp-cmd-cd} The \c{cd} and \c{pwd} commands: changing the |
210 | remote working directory |
211 | |
212 | PSFTP maintains a notion of your \q{working directory} on the |
213 | server. This is the default directory that other commands will |
214 | operate on. For example, if you type \c{get filename.dat} then PSFTP |
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215 | will look for \c{filename.dat} in your remote working directory on |
216 | the server. |
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217 | |
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218 | To change your remote working directory, use the \c{cd} command. To |
219 | display your current remote working directory, type \c{pwd}. |
220 | |
221 | \S{psftp-cmd-lcd} The \c{lcd} and \c{lpwd} commands: changing the |
222 | local working directory |
223 | |
224 | As well as having a working directory on the remote server, PSFTP |
225 | also has a working directory on your local machine (just like any |
226 | other Windows process). This is the default local directory that |
227 | other commands will operate on. For example, if you type \c{get |
228 | filename.dat} then PSFTP will save the resulting file as |
229 | \c{filename.dat} in your local working directory. |
230 | |
231 | To change your local working directory, use the \c{lcd} command. To |
232 | display your current local working directory, type \c{lpwd}. |
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233 | |
234 | \S{psftp-cmd-get} The \c{get} command: fetch a file from the server |
235 | |
236 | To download a file from the server and store it on your local PC, |
237 | you use the \c{get} command. |
238 | |
239 | In its simplest form, you just use this with a file name: |
240 | |
241 | \c get myfile.dat |
242 | |
243 | If you want to store the file locally under a different name, |
244 | specify the local file name after the remote one: |
245 | |
246 | \c get myfile.dat newname.dat |
247 | |
248 | This will fetch the file on the server called \c{myfile.dat}, but |
249 | will save it to your local machine under the name \c{newname.dat}. |
250 | |
251 | \S{psftp-cmd-put} The \c{put} command: send a file to the server |
252 | |
253 | To upload a file to the server from your local PC, you use the |
254 | \c{put} command. |
255 | |
256 | In its simplest form, you just use this with a file name: |
257 | |
258 | \c put myfile.dat |
259 | |
260 | If you want to store the file remotely under a different name, |
261 | specify the remote file name after the local one: |
262 | |
263 | \c put myfile.dat newname.dat |
264 | |
265 | This will send the local file called \c{myfile.dat}, but will store |
266 | it on the server under the name \c{newname.dat}. |
267 | |
268 | \S{psftp-cmd-regetput} The \c{reget} and \c{reput} commands: |
269 | resuming file transfers |
270 | |
271 | If a file transfer fails half way through, and you end up with half |
272 | the file stored on your disk, you can resume the file transfer using |
273 | the \c{reget} and \c{reput} commands. These work exactly like the |
274 | \c{get} and \c{put} commands, but they check for the presence of the |
275 | half-written destination file and start transferring from where the |
276 | last attempt left off. |
277 | |
278 | The syntax of \c{reget} and \c{reput} is exactly the same as the |
279 | syntax of \c{get} and \c{put}: |
280 | |
281 | \c reget myfile.dat |
282 | \c reget myfile.dat newname.dat |
283 | |
284 | \S{psftp-cmd-dir} The \c{dir} command: list remote files |
285 | |
286 | To list the files in your remote working directory, just type |
287 | \c{dir}. |
288 | |
289 | You can also list the contents of a different directory by typing |
290 | \c{dir} followed by the directory name: |
291 | |
292 | \c dir /home/fred |
293 | \c dir sources |
294 | |
295 | The \c{ls} command works exactly the same way as \c{dir}. |
296 | |
297 | \S{psftp-cmd-chmod} The \c{chmod} command: change permissions on |
298 | remote files |
299 | |
300 | PSFTP allows you to modify the file permissions on files on the |
301 | server. You do this using the \c{chmod} command, which works very |
302 | much like the Unix \c{chmod} command. |
303 | |
304 | The basic syntax is \c{chmod modes file}, where \c{modes} represents |
305 | a modification to the file permissions, and \c{file} is the filename |
306 | to modify. For example: |
307 | |
308 | \c chmod go-rwx,u+w privatefile |
309 | \c chmod a+r publicfile |
310 | \c chmod 640 groupfile |
311 | |
312 | The \c{modes} parameter can be a set of octal digits in the Unix |
313 | style. (If you don't know what this means, you probably don't want |
314 | to be using it!) Alternatively, it can be a list of permission |
315 | modifications, separated by commas. Each modification consists of: |
316 | |
317 | \b The people affected by the modification. This can be \c{u} (the |
318 | owning user), \c{g} (members of the owning group), or \c{o} |
319 | (everybody else - \q{others}), or some combination of those. It can |
320 | also be \c{a} (\q{all}) to affect everybody at once. |
321 | |
322 | \b A \c{+} or \c{-} sign, indicating whether permissions are to be |
323 | added or removed. |
324 | |
325 | \b The actual permissions being added or removed. These can be \c{r} |
326 | (permission to read the file), \c{w} (permission to write to the |
327 | file), and \c{x} (permission to execute the file, or in the case of |
328 | a directory, permission to access files within the directory). |
329 | |
330 | So the above examples would do: |
331 | |
332 | \b The first example: \c{go-rwx} removes read, write and execute |
333 | permissions for members of the owning group and everybody else (so |
334 | the only permissions left are the ones for the file owner). \c{u+w} |
335 | adds write permission for the file owner. |
336 | |
337 | \b The second example: \c{a+r} adds read permission for everybody. |
338 | |
339 | In addition to all this, there are a few extra special cases for |
340 | Unix systems. On non-Unix systems these are unlikely to be useful: |
341 | |
342 | \b You can specify \c{u+s} and \c{u-s} to add or remove the Unix |
343 | set-user-ID bit. This is typically only useful for special purposes; |
344 | refer to your Unix documentation if you're not sure about it. |
345 | |
346 | \b You can specify \c{g+s} and \c{g-s} to add or remove the Unix |
347 | set-group-ID bit. On a file, this works similarly to the set-user-ID |
348 | bit (see your Unix documentation again); on a directory it ensures |
349 | that files created in the directory are accessible by members of the |
350 | group that owns the directory. |
351 | |
352 | \b You can specify \c{+t} and \c{-t} to add or remove the Unix |
353 | \q{sticky bit}. When applied to a directory, this means that the |
354 | owner of a file in that directory can delete the file (whereas |
355 | normally only the owner of the \e{directory} would be allowed to). |
356 | |
357 | \S{psftp-cmd-del} The \c{del} command: delete remote files |
358 | |
359 | To delete a file on the server, type \c{del} and then the filename: |
360 | |
361 | \c del oldfile.dat |
362 | |
363 | The \c{rm} command works exactly the same way as \c{del}. |
364 | |
365 | \S{psftp-cmd-mkdir} The \c{mkdir} command: create remote directories |
366 | |
367 | To create a directory on the server, type \c{mkdir} and then the |
368 | directory name: |
369 | |
370 | \c mkdir newstuff |
371 | |
372 | \S{psftp-cmd-rmdir} The \c{rmdir} command: remove remote directories |
373 | |
374 | To remove a directory on the server, type \c{rmdir} and then the |
375 | directory name: |
376 | |
377 | \c rmdir oldstuff |
378 | |
379 | Most SFTP servers will probably refuse to remove a directory if the |
380 | directory has anything in it, so you will need to delete the |
381 | contents first. |
382 | |
383 | \S{psftp-cmd-ren} The \c{ren} command: rename remote files |
384 | |
385 | To rename a file on the server, type \c{ren}, then the current file |
386 | name, and then the new file name: |
387 | |
388 | \c ren oldfile newname |
389 | |
390 | The \c{rename} and \c{mv} commands work exactly the same way as |
391 | \c{ren}. |
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392 | |
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393 | \S{psftp-cmd-pling} The \c{!} command: run a local Windows command |
394 | |
395 | You can run local Windows commands using the \c{!} command. This is |
396 | the only PSFTP command that is not subject to the command quoting |
397 | rules given in \k{psftp-quoting}. If any command line begins with |
398 | the \c{!} character, then the rest of the line will be passed |
399 | straight to Windows without further translation. |
400 | |
401 | For example, if you want to move an existing copy of a file out of |
402 | the way before downloading an updated version, you might type: |
403 | |
404 | \c psftp> !ren myfile.dat myfile.bak |
405 | \c psftp> get myfile.dat |
406 | |
407 | using the Windows \c{ren} command to rename files on your local PC. |
408 | |
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409 | \H{psftp-pubkey} Using public key authentication with PSFTP |
410 | |
411 | Like PuTTY, PSFTP can authenticate using a public key instead of a |
412 | password. There are two ways you can do this. |
413 | |
414 | Firstly, PSFTP can use PuTTY saved sessions in place of hostnames. |
415 | So you might do this: |
416 | |
417 | \b Run PuTTY, and create a PuTTY saved session (see |
418 | \k{config-saving}) which specifies your private key file (see |
419 | \k{config-ssh-privkey}). You will probably also want to specify a |
420 | username to log in as (see \k{config-username}). |
421 | |
422 | \b In PSFTP, you can now use the name of the session instead of a |
423 | hostname: type \c{psftp sessionname}, where \c{sessionname} is |
424 | replaced by the name of your saved session. |
425 | |
426 | Secondly, PSFTP will attempt to authenticate using Pageant if Pageant |
427 | is running (see \k{pageant}). So you would do this: |
428 | |
429 | \b Ensure Pageant is running, and has your private key stored in it. |
430 | |
431 | \b Specify a user and host name to PSFTP as normal. PSFTP will |
432 | automatically detect Pageant and try to use the keys within it. |
433 | |
434 | For more general information on public-key authentication, see |
435 | \k{pubkey}. |