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
79 and then you could run the script by typing
81 \c psftp user@hostname -b myscript.scr
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 add the \c{-be} option (\k{psftp-option-be}).
87 \S{psftp-option-bc} \I{-bc-PSFTP}\c{-bc}: display batch commands as they are run
89 The \c{-bc} option alters what PSFTP displays while processing a
90 batch script specified with \c{-b}. With the \c{-bc} option, PSFTP
91 will display prompts and commands just as if the commands had been
92 typed at the keyboard. So instead of seeing this:
94 \c C:\>psftp fred@hostname -b batchfile
95 \c Sent username "fred"
96 \c Remote working directory is /home/fred
97 \c Listing directory /home/fred/lib
98 \c drwxrwsr-x 4 fred fred 1024 Sep 6 10:42 .
99 \c drwxr-sr-x 25 fred fred 2048 Dec 14 09:36 ..
100 \c drwxrwsr-x 3 fred fred 1024 Apr 17 2000 jed
101 \c lrwxrwxrwx 1 fred fred 24 Apr 17 2000 timber
102 \c drwxrwsr-x 2 fred fred 1024 Mar 13 2000 trn
106 \c C:\>psftp fred@hostname -bc -b batchfile
107 \c Sent username "fred"
108 \c Remote working directory is /home/fred
110 \c Listing directory /home/fred/lib
111 \c drwxrwsr-x 4 fred fred 1024 Sep 6 10:42 .
112 \c drwxr-sr-x 25 fred fred 2048 Dec 14 09:36 ..
113 \c drwxrwsr-x 3 fred fred 1024 Apr 17 2000 jed
114 \c lrwxrwxrwx 1 fred fred 24 Apr 17 2000 timber
115 \c drwxrwsr-x 2 fred fred 1024 Mar 13 2000 trn
118 \S{psftp-option-be} \I{-be-PSFTP}\c{-be}: continue batch processing on errors
120 When running a batch file, this additional option causes PSFTP to
121 continue processing even if a command fails to complete successfully.
123 You might want this to happen if you wanted to delete a file and
124 didn't care if it was already not present, for example.
126 \S{psftp-usage-options-batch} \I{-batch-PSFTP}\c{-batch}: avoid
129 If you use the \c{-batch} option, PSFTP will never give an
130 interactive prompt while establishing the connection. If the
131 server's host key is invalid, for example (see \k{gs-hostkey}), then
132 the connection will simply be abandoned instead of asking you what
135 This may help PSFTP's behaviour when it is used in automated
136 scripts: using \c{-batch}, if something goes wrong at connection
137 time, the batch job will fail rather than hang.
139 \H{psftp-commands} Running PSFTP
141 Once you have started your PSFTP session, you will see a \c{psftp>}
142 prompt. You can now type commands to perform file-transfer
143 functions. This section lists all the available commands.
145 \S{psftp-quoting} \I{quoting, in PSFTP}General quoting rules for PSFTP commands
147 Most PSFTP commands are considered by the PSFTP command interpreter
148 as a sequence of words, separated by spaces. For example, the
149 command \c{ren oldfilename newfilename} splits up into three words:
150 \c{ren} (the command name), \c{oldfilename} (the name of the file to
151 be renamed), and \c{newfilename} (the new name to give the file).
153 Sometimes you will need to specify \I{spaces in filenames}file names
154 that \e{contain} spaces. In order to do this, you can surround
155 the file name with double quotes. This works equally well for
156 local file names and remote file names:
158 \c psftp> get "spacey file name.txt" "save it under this name.txt"
160 The double quotes themselves will not appear as part of the file
161 names; they are removed by PSFTP and their only effect is to stop
162 the spaces inside them from acting as word separators.
164 If you need to \e{use} a double quote (on some types of remote
165 system, such as Unix, you are allowed to use double quotes in file
166 names), you can do this by doubling it. This works both inside and
167 outside double quotes. For example, this command
169 \c psftp> ren ""this"" "a file with ""quotes"" in it"
171 will take a file whose current name is \c{"this"} (with a double
172 quote character at the beginning and the end) and rename it to a
173 file whose name is \c{a file with "quotes" in it}.
175 (The one exception to the PSFTP quoting rules is the \c{!} command,
176 which passes its command line straight to Windows without splitting
177 it up into words at all. See \k{psftp-cmd-pling}.)
179 \S{psftp-wildcards} Wildcards in PSFTP
181 Several commands in PSFTP support \q{\i{wildcards}} to select multiple
184 For \e{local} file specifications (such as the first argument to
185 \c{put}), wildcard rules for the local operating system are used. For
186 instance, PSFTP running on Windows might require the use of \c{*.*}
187 where PSFTP on Unix would need \c{*}.
189 For \e{remote} file specifications (such as the first argument to
190 \c{get}), PSFTP uses a standard wildcard syntax (similar to \i{POSIX}
193 \b \c{*} matches any sequence of characters (including a zero-length
196 \b \c{?} matches exactly one character.
198 \b \c{[abc]} matches exactly one character which can be \cw{a},
203 \c{[a-z]} matches any character in the range \cw{a} to \cw{z}.
205 \c{[^abc]} matches a single character that is \e{not} \cw{a}, \cw{b},
208 Special cases: \c{[-a]} matches a literal hyphen (\cw{-}) or \cw{a};
209 \c{[^-a]} matches all other characters. \c{[a^]} matches a literal
210 caret (\cw{^}) or \cw{a}.
214 \b \c{\\} (backslash) before any of the above characters (or itself)
215 removes that character's special meaning.
217 A leading period (\cw{.}) on a filename is not treated specially,
218 unlike in some Unix contexts; \c{get *} will fetch all files, whether
219 or not they start with a leading period.
221 \S{psftp-cmd-open} The \c{open} command: start a session
223 If you started PSFTP by double-clicking in the GUI, or just by
224 typing \c{psftp} at the command line, you will need to open a
225 connection to an SFTP server before you can issue any other
226 commands (except \c{help} and \c{quit}).
228 To create a connection, type \c{open host.name}, or if you need to
229 specify a user name as well you can type \c{open user@host.name}.
231 Once you have issued this command, you will not be able to issue it
232 again, \e{even} if the command fails (for example, if you mistype
233 the host name or the connection times out). So if the connection is
234 not opened successfully, PSFTP will terminate immediately.
236 \S{psftp-cmd-quit} The \c{quit} command: end your session
238 When you have finished your session, type the command \c{quit} to
239 close the connection, terminate PSFTP and return to the command line
240 (or just close the PSFTP console window if you started it from the
243 You can also use the \c{bye} and \c{exit} commands, which have
244 exactly the same effect.
246 \S{psftp-cmd-close} The \c{close} command: close your connection
248 If you just want to close the network connection but keep PSFTP
249 running, you can use the \c{close} command. You can then use the
250 \c{open} command to open a new connection.
252 \S{psftp-cmd-help} The \c{help} command: get quick online help
254 If you type \c{help}, PSFTP will give a short list of the available
257 If you type \c{help} with a command name - for example, \c{help get}
258 - then PSFTP will give a short piece of help on that particular
261 \S{psftp-cmd-cd} The \c{cd} and \c{pwd} commands: changing the
262 remote \i{working directory}
264 PSFTP maintains a notion of your \q{working directory} on the
265 server. This is the default directory that other commands will
266 operate on. For example, if you type \c{get filename.dat} then PSFTP
267 will look for \c{filename.dat} in your remote working directory on
270 To change your remote working directory, use the \c{cd} command. If
271 you don't provide an argument, \c{cd} will return you to your home
272 directory on the server (more precisely, the remote directory you were
273 in at the start of the connection).
275 To display your current remote working directory, type \c{pwd}.
277 \S{psftp-cmd-lcd} The \c{lcd} and \c{lpwd} commands: changing the
278 local \i{working directory}
280 As well as having a working directory on the remote server, PSFTP
281 also has a working directory on your local machine (just like any
282 other Windows process). This is the default local directory that
283 other commands will operate on. For example, if you type \c{get
284 filename.dat} then PSFTP will save the resulting file as
285 \c{filename.dat} in your local working directory.
287 To change your local working directory, use the \c{lcd} command. To
288 display your current local working directory, type \c{lpwd}.
290 \S{psftp-cmd-get} The \c{get} command: fetch a file from the server
292 To \i{download a file} from the server and store it on your local PC,
293 you use the \c{get} command.
295 In its simplest form, you just use this with a file name:
299 If you want to store the file locally under a different name,
300 specify the local file name after the remote one:
302 \c get myfile.dat newname.dat
304 This will fetch the file on the server called \c{myfile.dat}, but
305 will save it to your local machine under the name \c{newname.dat}.
307 To fetch an entire directory \i{recursive}ly, you can use the \c{-r}
311 \c get -r mydir newname
313 (If you want to fetch a file whose name starts with a hyphen, you
314 may have to use the \c{--} special argument, which stops \c{get}
315 from interpreting anything as a switch after it. For example,
316 \cq{get -- -silly-name-}.)
318 \S{psftp-cmd-put} The \c{put} command: send a file to the server
320 To \i{upload a file} to the server from your local PC, you use the
323 In its simplest form, you just use this with a file name:
327 If you want to store the file remotely under a different name,
328 specify the remote file name after the local one:
330 \c put myfile.dat newname.dat
332 This will send the local file called \c{myfile.dat}, but will store
333 it on the server under the name \c{newname.dat}.
335 To send an entire directory \i{recursive}ly, you can use the \c{-r}
339 \c put -r mydir newname
341 (If you want to send a file whose name starts with a hyphen, you may
342 have to use the \c{--} special argument, which stops \c{put} from
343 interpreting anything as a switch after it. For example, \cq{put --
346 \S{psftp-cmd-mgetput} The \c{mget} and \c{mput} commands: fetch or
349 \c{mget} works almost exactly like \c{get}, except that it allows
350 you to specify more than one file to fetch at once. You can do this
353 \b by giving two or more explicit file names (\cq{mget file1.txt
356 \b by using a wildcard (\cq{mget *.txt}).
358 Every argument to \c{mget} is treated as the name of a file to fetch
359 (unlike \c{get}, which will interpret at most one argument like
360 that, and a second argument will be treated as an alternative name
361 under which to store the retrieved file), or a \i{wildcard} expression
362 matching more than one file.
364 The \c{-r} and \c{--} options from \c{get} are also available with
367 \c{mput} is similar to \c{put}, with the same differences.
369 \S{psftp-cmd-regetput} The \c{reget} and \c{reput} commands:
370 \i{resuming file transfers}
372 If a file transfer fails half way through, and you end up with half
373 the file stored on your disk, you can resume the file transfer using
374 the \c{reget} and \c{reput} commands. These work exactly like the
375 \c{get} and \c{put} commands, but they check for the presence of the
376 half-written destination file and start transferring from where the
377 last attempt left off.
379 The syntax of \c{reget} and \c{reput} is exactly the same as the
380 syntax of \c{get} and \c{put}:
383 \c reget myfile.dat newname.dat
386 These commands are intended mainly for resuming interrupted transfers.
387 They assume that the remote file or directory structure has not
388 changed in any way; if there have been changes, you may end up with
389 corrupted files. In particular, the \c{-r} option will not pick up
390 changes to files or directories already transferred in full.
392 \S{psftp-cmd-dir} The \c{dir} command: \I{listing files}list remote files
394 To list the files in your remote working directory, just type
397 You can also list the contents of a different directory by typing
398 \c{dir} followed by the directory name:
403 And you can list a subset of the contents of a directory by
404 providing a wildcard:
406 \c dir /home/fred/*.txt
409 The \c{ls} command works exactly the same way as \c{dir}.
411 \S{psftp-cmd-chmod} The \c{chmod} command: change permissions on
414 \I{changing permissions on files}PSFTP
415 allows you to modify the file permissions on files and
416 directories on the server. You do this using the \c{chmod} command,
417 which works very much like the Unix \c{chmod} command.
419 The basic syntax is \c{chmod modes file}, where \c{modes} represents
420 a modification to the file permissions, and \c{file} is the filename
421 to modify. You can specify multiple files or wildcards. For example:
423 \c chmod go-rwx,u+w privatefile
425 \c chmod 640 groupfile1 groupfile2
427 The \c{modes} parameter can be a set of octal digits in the Unix
428 style. (If you don't know what this means, you probably don't want
429 to be using it!) Alternatively, it can be a list of permission
430 modifications, separated by commas. Each modification consists of:
432 \b The people affected by the modification. This can be \c{u} (the
433 owning user), \c{g} (members of the owning group), or \c{o}
434 (everybody else - \q{others}), or some combination of those. It can
435 also be \c{a} (\q{all}) to affect everybody at once.
437 \b A \c{+} or \c{-} sign, indicating whether permissions are to be
440 \b The actual permissions being added or removed. These can be
441 \I{read permission}\c{r} (permission to read the file),
442 \I{write permission}\c{w} (permission to write to the file), and
443 \I{execute permission}\c{x} (permission to execute the file, or in
444 the case of a directory, permission to access files within the
447 So the above examples would do:
449 \b The first example: \c{go-rwx} removes read, write and execute
450 permissions for members of the owning group and everybody else (so
451 the only permissions left are the ones for the file owner). \c{u+w}
452 adds write permission for the file owner.
454 \b The second example: \c{a+r} adds read permission for everybody to
455 all files and directories starting with \q{public}.
457 In addition to all this, there are a few extra special cases for
458 \i{Unix} systems. On non-Unix systems these are unlikely to be useful:
460 \b You can specify \c{u+s} and \c{u-s} to add or remove the Unix
461 \i{set-user-ID bit}. This is typically only useful for special purposes;
462 refer to your Unix documentation if you're not sure about it.
464 \b You can specify \c{g+s} and \c{g-s} to add or remove the Unix
465 \i{set-group-ID bit}. On a file, this works similarly to the set-user-ID
466 bit (see your Unix documentation again); on a directory it ensures
467 that files created in the directory are accessible by members of the
468 group that owns the directory.
470 \b You can specify \c{+t} and \c{-t} to add or remove the Unix
471 \q{\i{sticky bit}}. When applied to a directory, this means that the
472 owner of a file in that directory can delete the file (whereas
473 normally only the owner of the \e{directory} would be allowed to).
475 \S{psftp-cmd-del} The \c{del} command: delete remote files
477 To \I{deleting files}delete a file on the server, type \c{del} and
478 then the filename or filenames:
481 \c del file1.txt file2.txt
484 Files will be deleted without further prompting, even if multiple files
487 \c{del} will only delete files. You cannot use it to delete
488 directories; use \c{rmdir} for that.
490 The \c{rm} command works exactly the same way as \c{del}.
492 \S{psftp-cmd-mkdir} The \c{mkdir} command: create remote directories
494 To \i{create a directory} on the server, type \c{mkdir} and then the
499 You can specify multiple directories to create at once:
501 \c mkdir dir1 dir2 dir3
503 \S{psftp-cmd-rmdir} The \c{rmdir} command: remove remote directories
505 To \i{remove a directory} on the server, type \c{rmdir} and then the
506 directory name or names:
509 \c rmdir *.old ancient
511 Directories will be deleted without further prompting, even if
512 multiple directories are specified.
514 Most SFTP servers will probably refuse to remove a directory if the
515 directory has anything in it, so you will need to delete the
518 \S{psftp-cmd-mv} The \c{mv} command: move and \i{rename remote files}
520 To rename a single file on the server, type \c{mv}, then the current
521 file name, and then the new file name:
523 \c mv oldfile newname
525 You can also move the file into a different directory and change the
528 \c mv oldfile dir/newname
530 To move one or more files into an existing subdirectory, specify the
531 files (using wildcards if desired), and then the destination
535 \c mv file1 dir1/file2 dir2
538 The \c{rename} and \c{ren} commands work exactly the same way as
541 \S{psftp-cmd-pling} The \c{!} command: run a \i{local Windows command}
543 You can run local Windows commands using the \c{!} command. This is
544 the only PSFTP command that is not subject to the command quoting
545 rules given in \k{psftp-quoting}. If any command line begins with
546 the \c{!} character, then the rest of the line will be passed
547 straight to Windows without further translation.
549 For example, if you want to move an existing copy of a file out of
550 the way before downloading an updated version, you might type:
552 \c psftp> !ren myfile.dat myfile.bak
553 \c psftp> get myfile.dat
555 using the Windows \c{ren} command to rename files on your local PC.
557 \H{psftp-pubkey} Using \i{public key authentication} with PSFTP
559 Like PuTTY, PSFTP can authenticate using a public key instead of a
560 password. There are three ways you can do this.
562 Firstly, PSFTP can use PuTTY saved sessions in place of hostnames.
563 So you might do this:
565 \b Run PuTTY, and create a PuTTY saved session (see
566 \k{config-saving}) which specifies your private key file (see
567 \k{config-ssh-privkey}). You will probably also want to specify a
568 username to log in as (see \k{config-username}).
570 \b In PSFTP, you can now use the name of the session instead of a
571 hostname: type \c{psftp sessionname}, where \c{sessionname} is
572 replaced by the name of your saved session.
574 Secondly, you can supply the name of a private key file on the command
575 line, with the \c{-i} option. See \k{using-cmdline-identity} for more
578 Thirdly, PSFTP will attempt to authenticate using Pageant if Pageant
579 is running (see \k{pageant}). So you would do this:
581 \b Ensure Pageant is running, and has your private key stored in it.
583 \b Specify a user and host name to PSFTP as normal. PSFTP will
584 automatically detect Pageant and try to use the keys within it.
586 For more general information on public-key authentication, see