1 \C{psftp} Using \i{PSFTP} to transfer files securely
3 \i{PSFTP}, the PuTTY SFTP client, is a tool for \i{transferring files}
4 securely between computers using an SSH connection.
6 PSFTP differs from PSCP in the following ways:
8 \b PSCP should work on virtually every SSH server. PSFTP uses the
9 new \i{SFTP} protocol, which is a feature of SSH-2 only. (PSCP will also
10 use this protocol if it can, but there is an SSH-1 equivalent it can
11 fall back to if it cannot.)
13 \b PSFTP allows you to run an interactive file transfer session,
14 much like the Windows \i\c{ftp} program. You can list the contents of
15 directories, browse around the file system, issue multiple \c{get}
16 and \c{put} commands, and eventually log out. By contrast, PSCP is
17 designed to do a single file transfer operation and immediately
20 \H{psftp-starting} Starting PSFTP
22 The usual way to start PSFTP is from a command prompt, much like
23 PSCP. To do this, it will need either to be on your \i{\c{PATH}} or
24 in your current directory. To add the directory containing PSFTP to
25 your \c{PATH} environment variable, type into the console window:
27 \c set PATH=C:\path\to\putty\directory;%PATH%
29 Unlike PSCP, however, PSFTP has no complex command-line syntax; you
30 just specify a host name and perhaps a user name:
32 \c psftp server.example.com
36 \c psftp fred@server.example.com
38 Alternatively, if you just type \c{psftp} on its own (or
39 double-click the PSFTP icon in the Windows GUI), you will see the
40 PSFTP prompt, and a message telling you PSFTP has not connected to
44 \c psftp: no hostname specified; use "open host.name" to connect
47 At this point you can type \c{open server.example.com} or \c{open
48 fred@server.example.com} to start a session.
50 PSFTP accepts all the general command line options supported by the
51 PuTTY tools, except the ones which make no sense in a file transfer
52 utility. See \k{using-general-opts} for a description of these
53 options. (The ones not supported by PSFTP are clearly marked.)
55 PSFTP also supports some of its own options. The following sections
56 describe PSFTP's specific command-line options.
58 \S{psftp-option-b} \I{-b-PSFTP}\c{-b}: specify a file containing batch commands
60 In normal operation, PSFTP is an interactive program which displays
61 a command line and accepts commands from the keyboard.
63 If you need to do automated tasks with PSFTP, you would probably
64 prefer to \I{batch scripts in PSFTP}specify a set of commands in
65 advance and have them executed automatically. The \c{-b} option
66 allows you to do this. You use it with a file name containing batch
67 commands. For example, you might create a file called \c{myscript.scr}
68 containing lines like this:
70 \c cd /home/ftp/users/jeff
72 \c ren jam.tar.gz jam-old.tar.gz
74 \c chmod a+r jam.tar.gz
76 and then you could run the script by typing
78 \c psftp user@hostname -b myscript.scr
80 When you run a batch script in this way, PSFTP will abort the script
81 if any command fails to complete successfully. To change this
82 behaviour, you can add the \c{-be} option (\k{psftp-option-be}).
84 PSFTP will terminate after it finishes executing the batch script.
86 \S{psftp-option-bc} \I{-bc-PSFTP}\c{-bc}: display batch commands as they are run
88 The \c{-bc} option alters what PSFTP displays while processing a
89 batch script specified with \c{-b}. With the \c{-bc} option, PSFTP
90 will display prompts and commands just as if the commands had been
91 typed at the keyboard. So instead of seeing this:
93 \c C:\>psftp fred@hostname -b batchfile
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
105 \c C:\>psftp fred@hostname -bc -b batchfile
106 \c Sent username "fred"
107 \c Remote working directory is /home/fred
109 \c Listing directory /home/fred/lib
110 \c drwxrwsr-x 4 fred fred 1024 Sep 6 10:42 .
111 \c drwxr-sr-x 25 fred fred 2048 Dec 14 09:36 ..
112 \c drwxrwsr-x 3 fred fred 1024 Apr 17 2000 jed
113 \c lrwxrwxrwx 1 fred fred 24 Apr 17 2000 timber
114 \c drwxrwsr-x 2 fred fred 1024 Mar 13 2000 trn
117 \S{psftp-option-be} \I{-be-PSFTP}\c{-be}: continue batch processing on errors
119 When running a batch file, this additional option causes PSFTP to
120 continue processing even if a command fails to complete successfully.
122 You might want this to happen if you wanted to delete a file and
123 didn't care if it was already not present, for example.
125 \S{psftp-usage-options-batch} \I{-batch-PSFTP}\c{-batch}: avoid
128 If you use the \c{-batch} option, PSFTP will never give an
129 interactive prompt while establishing the connection. If the
130 server's host key is invalid, for example (see \k{gs-hostkey}), then
131 the connection will simply be abandoned instead of asking you what
134 This may help PSFTP's behaviour when it is used in automated
135 scripts: using \c{-batch}, if something goes wrong at connection
136 time, the batch job will fail rather than hang.
138 \H{psftp-commands} Running PSFTP
140 Once you have started your PSFTP session, you will see a \c{psftp>}
141 prompt. You can now type commands to perform file-transfer
142 functions. This section lists all the available commands.
144 Any line starting with a \cw{#} will be treated as a \i{comment}
147 \S{psftp-quoting} \I{quoting, in PSFTP}General quoting rules for PSFTP commands
149 Most PSFTP commands are considered by the PSFTP command interpreter
150 as a sequence of words, separated by spaces. For example, the
151 command \c{ren oldfilename newfilename} splits up into three words:
152 \c{ren} (the command name), \c{oldfilename} (the name of the file to
153 be renamed), and \c{newfilename} (the new name to give the file).
155 Sometimes you will need to specify \I{spaces in filenames}file names
156 that \e{contain} spaces. In order to do this, you can surround
157 the file name with double quotes. This works equally well for
158 local file names and remote file names:
160 \c psftp> get "spacey file name.txt" "save it under this name.txt"
162 The double quotes themselves will not appear as part of the file
163 names; they are removed by PSFTP and their only effect is to stop
164 the spaces inside them from acting as word separators.
166 If you need to \e{use} a double quote (on some types of remote
167 system, such as Unix, you are allowed to use double quotes in file
168 names), you can do this by doubling it. This works both inside and
169 outside double quotes. For example, this command
171 \c psftp> ren ""this"" "a file with ""quotes"" in it"
173 will take a file whose current name is \c{"this"} (with a double
174 quote character at the beginning and the end) and rename it to a
175 file whose name is \c{a file with "quotes" in it}.
177 (The one exception to the PSFTP quoting rules is the \c{!} command,
178 which passes its command line straight to Windows without splitting
179 it up into words at all. See \k{psftp-cmd-pling}.)
181 \S{psftp-wildcards} Wildcards in PSFTP
183 Several commands in PSFTP support \q{\i{wildcards}} to select multiple
186 For \e{local} file specifications (such as the first argument to
187 \c{put}), wildcard rules for the local operating system are used. For
188 instance, PSFTP running on Windows might require the use of \c{*.*}
189 where PSFTP on Unix would need \c{*}.
191 For \e{remote} file specifications (such as the first argument to
192 \c{get}), PSFTP uses a standard wildcard syntax (similar to \i{POSIX}
195 \b \c{*} matches any sequence of characters (including a zero-length
198 \b \c{?} matches exactly one character.
200 \b \c{[abc]} matches exactly one character which can be \cw{a},
205 \c{[a-z]} matches any character in the range \cw{a} to \cw{z}.
207 \c{[^abc]} matches a single character that is \e{not} \cw{a}, \cw{b},
210 Special cases: \c{[-a]} matches a literal hyphen (\cw{-}) or \cw{a};
211 \c{[^-a]} matches all other characters. \c{[a^]} matches a literal
212 caret (\cw{^}) or \cw{a}.
216 \b \c{\\} (backslash) before any of the above characters (or itself)
217 removes that character's special meaning.
219 A leading period (\cw{.}) on a filename is not treated specially,
220 unlike in some Unix contexts; \c{get *} will fetch all files, whether
221 or not they start with a leading period.
223 \S{psftp-cmd-open} The \c{open} command: start a session
225 If you started PSFTP by double-clicking in the GUI, or just by
226 typing \c{psftp} at the command line, you will need to open a
227 connection to an SFTP server before you can issue any other
228 commands (except \c{help} and \c{quit}).
230 To create a connection, type \c{open host.name}, or if you need to
231 specify a user name as well you can type \c{open user@host.name}.
232 You can optionally specify a port as well:
233 \c{open user@host.name 22}.
235 Once you have issued this command, you will not be able to issue it
236 again, \e{even} if the command fails (for example, if you mistype
237 the host name or the connection times out). So if the connection is
238 not opened successfully, PSFTP will terminate immediately.
240 \S{psftp-cmd-quit} The \c{quit} command: end your session
242 When you have finished your session, type the command \c{quit} to
243 close the connection, terminate PSFTP and return to the command line
244 (or just close the PSFTP console window if you started it from the
247 You can also use the \c{bye} and \c{exit} commands, which have
248 exactly the same effect.
250 \S{psftp-cmd-close} The \c{close} command: close your connection
252 If you just want to close the network connection but keep PSFTP
253 running, you can use the \c{close} command. You can then use the
254 \c{open} command to open a new connection.
256 \S{psftp-cmd-help} The \c{help} command: get quick online help
258 If you type \c{help}, PSFTP will give a short list of the available
261 If you type \c{help} with a command name - for example, \c{help get}
262 - then PSFTP will give a short piece of help on that particular
265 \S{psftp-cmd-cd} The \c{cd} and \c{pwd} commands: changing the
266 remote \i{working directory}
268 PSFTP maintains a notion of your \q{working directory} on the
269 server. This is the default directory that other commands will
270 operate on. For example, if you type \c{get filename.dat} then PSFTP
271 will look for \c{filename.dat} in your remote working directory on
274 To change your remote working directory, use the \c{cd} command. If
275 you don't provide an argument, \c{cd} will return you to your home
276 directory on the server (more precisely, the remote directory you were
277 in at the start of the connection).
279 To display your current remote working directory, type \c{pwd}.
281 \S{psftp-cmd-lcd} The \c{lcd} and \c{lpwd} commands: changing the
282 local \i{working directory}
284 As well as having a working directory on the remote server, PSFTP
285 also has a working directory on your local machine (just like any
286 other Windows process). This is the default local directory that
287 other commands will operate on. For example, if you type \c{get
288 filename.dat} then PSFTP will save the resulting file as
289 \c{filename.dat} in your local working directory.
291 To change your local working directory, use the \c{lcd} command. To
292 display your current local working directory, type \c{lpwd}.
294 \S{psftp-cmd-get} The \c{get} command: fetch a file from the server
296 To \i{download a file} from the server and store it on your local PC,
297 you use the \c{get} command.
299 In its simplest form, you just use this with a file name:
303 If you want to store the file locally under a different name,
304 specify the local file name after the remote one:
306 \c get myfile.dat newname.dat
308 This will fetch the file on the server called \c{myfile.dat}, but
309 will save it to your local machine under the name \c{newname.dat}.
311 To fetch an entire directory \i{recursive}ly, you can use the \c{-r}
315 \c get -r mydir newname
317 (If you want to fetch a file whose name starts with a hyphen, you
318 may have to use the \c{--} special argument, which stops \c{get}
319 from interpreting anything as a switch after it. For example,
320 \cq{get -- -silly-name-}.)
322 \S{psftp-cmd-put} The \c{put} command: send a file to the server
324 To \i{upload a file} to the server from your local PC, you use the
327 In its simplest form, you just use this with a file name:
331 If you want to store the file remotely under a different name,
332 specify the remote file name after the local one:
334 \c put myfile.dat newname.dat
336 This will send the local file called \c{myfile.dat}, but will store
337 it on the server under the name \c{newname.dat}.
339 To send an entire directory \i{recursive}ly, you can use the \c{-r}
343 \c put -r mydir newname
345 (If you want to send a file whose name starts with a hyphen, you may
346 have to use the \c{--} special argument, which stops \c{put} from
347 interpreting anything as a switch after it. For example, \cq{put --
350 \S{psftp-cmd-mgetput} The \c{mget} and \c{mput} commands: fetch or
353 \c{mget} works almost exactly like \c{get}, except that it allows
354 you to specify more than one file to fetch at once. You can do this
357 \b by giving two or more explicit file names (\cq{mget file1.txt
360 \b by using a wildcard (\cq{mget *.txt}).
362 Every argument to \c{mget} is treated as the name of a file to fetch
363 (unlike \c{get}, which will interpret at most one argument like
364 that, and a second argument will be treated as an alternative name
365 under which to store the retrieved file), or a \i{wildcard} expression
366 matching more than one file.
368 The \c{-r} and \c{--} options from \c{get} are also available with
371 \c{mput} is similar to \c{put}, with the same differences.
373 \S{psftp-cmd-regetput} The \c{reget} and \c{reput} commands:
374 \i{resuming file transfers}
376 If a file transfer fails half way through, and you end up with half
377 the file stored on your disk, you can resume the file transfer using
378 the \c{reget} and \c{reput} commands. These work exactly like the
379 \c{get} and \c{put} commands, but they check for the presence of the
380 half-written destination file and start transferring from where the
381 last attempt left off.
383 The syntax of \c{reget} and \c{reput} is exactly the same as the
384 syntax of \c{get} and \c{put}:
387 \c reget myfile.dat newname.dat
390 These commands are intended mainly for resuming interrupted transfers.
391 They assume that the remote file or directory structure has not
392 changed in any way; if there have been changes, you may end up with
393 corrupted files. In particular, the \c{-r} option will not pick up
394 changes to files or directories already transferred in full.
396 \S{psftp-cmd-dir} The \c{dir} command: \I{listing files}list remote files
398 To list the files in your remote working directory, just type
401 You can also list the contents of a different directory by typing
402 \c{dir} followed by the directory name:
407 And you can list a subset of the contents of a directory by
408 providing a wildcard:
410 \c dir /home/fred/*.txt
413 The \c{ls} command works exactly the same way as \c{dir}.
415 \S{psftp-cmd-chmod} The \c{chmod} command: change permissions on
418 \I{changing permissions on files}PSFTP
419 allows you to modify the file permissions on files and
420 directories on the server. You do this using the \c{chmod} command,
421 which works very much like the Unix \c{chmod} command.
423 The basic syntax is \c{chmod modes file}, where \c{modes} represents
424 a modification to the file permissions, and \c{file} is the filename
425 to modify. You can specify multiple files or wildcards. For example:
427 \c chmod go-rwx,u+w privatefile
429 \c chmod 640 groupfile1 groupfile2
431 The \c{modes} parameter can be a set of octal digits in the Unix
432 style. (If you don't know what this means, you probably don't want
433 to be using it!) Alternatively, it can be a list of permission
434 modifications, separated by commas. Each modification consists of:
436 \b The people affected by the modification. This can be \c{u} (the
437 owning user), \c{g} (members of the owning group), or \c{o}
438 (everybody else - \q{others}), or some combination of those. It can
439 also be \c{a} (\q{all}) to affect everybody at once.
441 \b A \c{+} or \c{-} sign, indicating whether permissions are to be
444 \b The actual permissions being added or removed. These can be
445 \I{read permission}\c{r} (permission to read the file),
446 \I{write permission}\c{w} (permission to write to the file), and
447 \I{execute permission}\c{x} (permission to execute the file, or in
448 the case of a directory, permission to access files within the
451 So the above examples would do:
453 \b The first example: \c{go-rwx} removes read, write and execute
454 permissions for members of the owning group and everybody else (so
455 the only permissions left are the ones for the file owner). \c{u+w}
456 adds write permission for the file owner.
458 \b The second example: \c{a+r} adds read permission for everybody to
459 all files and directories starting with \q{public}.
461 In addition to all this, there are a few extra special cases for
462 \i{Unix} systems. On non-Unix systems these are unlikely to be useful:
464 \b You can specify \c{u+s} and \c{u-s} to add or remove the Unix
465 \i{set-user-ID bit}. This is typically only useful for special purposes;
466 refer to your Unix documentation if you're not sure about it.
468 \b You can specify \c{g+s} and \c{g-s} to add or remove the Unix
469 \i{set-group-ID bit}. On a file, this works similarly to the set-user-ID
470 bit (see your Unix documentation again); on a directory it ensures
471 that files created in the directory are accessible by members of the
472 group that owns the directory.
474 \b You can specify \c{+t} and \c{-t} to add or remove the Unix
475 \q{\i{sticky bit}}. When applied to a directory, this means that the
476 owner of a file in that directory can delete the file (whereas
477 normally only the owner of the \e{directory} would be allowed to).
479 \S{psftp-cmd-del} The \c{del} command: delete remote files
481 To \I{deleting files}delete a file on the server, type \c{del} and
482 then the filename or filenames:
485 \c del file1.txt file2.txt
488 Files will be deleted without further prompting, even if multiple files
491 \c{del} will only delete files. You cannot use it to delete
492 directories; use \c{rmdir} for that.
494 The \c{rm} command works exactly the same way as \c{del}.
496 \S{psftp-cmd-mkdir} The \c{mkdir} command: create remote directories
498 To \i{create a directory} on the server, type \c{mkdir} and then the
503 You can specify multiple directories to create at once:
505 \c mkdir dir1 dir2 dir3
507 \S{psftp-cmd-rmdir} The \c{rmdir} command: remove remote directories
509 To \i{remove a directory} on the server, type \c{rmdir} and then the
510 directory name or names:
513 \c rmdir *.old ancient
515 Directories will be deleted without further prompting, even if
516 multiple directories are specified.
518 Most SFTP servers will probably refuse to remove a directory if the
519 directory has anything in it, so you will need to delete the
522 \S{psftp-cmd-mv} The \c{mv} command: move and \i{rename remote files}
524 To rename a single file on the server, type \c{mv}, then the current
525 file name, and then the new file name:
527 \c mv oldfile newname
529 You can also move the file into a different directory and change the
532 \c mv oldfile dir/newname
534 To move one or more files into an existing subdirectory, specify the
535 files (using wildcards if desired), and then the destination
539 \c mv file1 dir1/file2 dir2
542 The \c{rename} and \c{ren} commands work exactly the same way as
545 \S{psftp-cmd-pling} The \c{!} command: run a \i{local Windows command}
547 You can run local Windows commands using the \c{!} command. This is
548 the only PSFTP command that is not subject to the command quoting
549 rules given in \k{psftp-quoting}. If any command line begins with
550 the \c{!} character, then the rest of the line will be passed
551 straight to Windows without further translation.
553 For example, if you want to move an existing copy of a file out of
554 the way before downloading an updated version, you might type:
556 \c psftp> !ren myfile.dat myfile.bak
557 \c psftp> get myfile.dat
559 using the Windows \c{ren} command to rename files on your local PC.
561 \H{psftp-pubkey} Using \i{public key authentication} with PSFTP
563 Like PuTTY, PSFTP can authenticate using a public key instead of a
564 password. There are three ways you can do this.
566 Firstly, PSFTP can use PuTTY saved sessions in place of hostnames.
567 So you might do this:
569 \b Run PuTTY, and create a PuTTY saved session (see
570 \k{config-saving}) which specifies your private key file (see
571 \k{config-ssh-privkey}). You will probably also want to specify a
572 username to log in as (see \k{config-username}).
574 \b In PSFTP, you can now use the name of the session instead of a
575 hostname: type \c{psftp sessionname}, where \c{sessionname} is
576 replaced by the name of your saved session.
578 Secondly, you can supply the name of a private key file on the command
579 line, with the \c{-i} option. See \k{using-cmdline-identity} for more
582 Thirdly, PSFTP will attempt to authenticate using Pageant if Pageant
583 is running (see \k{pageant}). So you would do this:
585 \b Ensure Pageant is running, and has your private key stored in it.
587 \b Specify a user and host name to PSFTP as normal. PSFTP will
588 automatically detect Pageant and try to use the keys within it.
590 For more general information on public-key authentication, see