How to: SFTP Commands – Securely Transfer Files to a Remote Server

Verified and Tested 08/31/15

Introduction

In this How-to, we will be going over the  SFTP commands to make our lives easier and to work more effective in our shell sessions. SFTP is an acronym for “Secure File Transfer Protocol” and it is a secure way for file management over a network using SSH. Essentially it is FTP using SSH.

Prerequisites

– You need two Linux servers that configured with static IP addresses. One server to run the SFTP commands and one server to connect via SFTP.

Launching SFTP

For this tutorial, we will be connecting via SFTP from one Linux Server to another. To launch SFTP, you will need two pieces of information. One is the remote username and the remote IP address or hostname of the server. Once you type the following command with that information, you will be prompted for the password. Then you will be logged in.

sftp remoteuser@remotehostorip

An example of connecting via SFTP

Changing Directories

Once you’re in, you can to run all the commands that you normally run. In this case, you can change from one directory to the other in your remote SFTP session with the following CD command:

cd

Displaying Remote Directories

You can view the directory listings for your remote SFTP session with any one of the following commands:

dir
ls

Quitting  SFTP

Once you are done with your remote SFTP session, you could close it with any of the following three commands:

exit
quit
bye

Downloading  Files

You can download files from your remote session with the get command followed by the file that you wish to download. Do this with the following command and replacing the bracket and yourfile with the file of your choice.

get [yourfile]

 

An example of using the “get” SFTP command

Also, you could download it with a new name with the following command.(note: this will download to your local home directory)

get [yourfile] [newname]

Displaying The Help Text

If you don’t remember one of the SFTP commands, you can just type one of the following two commands to display them.

help
?

The output will be similar to the box below.

Available commands:
bye                                Quit sftp
cd path                            Change remote directory to 'path'
chgrp grp path                     Change group of file 'path' to 'grp'
chmod mode path                    Change permissions of file 'path' to 'mode'
chown own path                     Change owner of file 'path' to 'own'
df [-hi] [path]                    Display statistics for current directory or
                                   filesystem containing 'path'
exit                               Quit sftp
get [-Ppr] remote [local]          Download file
reget remote [local]               Resume download file
help                               Display this help text
lcd path                           Change local directory to 'path'
lls [ls-options [path]]            Display local directory listing
lmkdir path                        Create local directory
ln [-s] oldpath newpath            Link remote file (-s for symlink)
lpwd                               Print local working directory
ls [-1afhlnrSt] [path]             Display remote directory listing
lumask umask                       Set local umask to 'umask'
mkdir path                         Create remote directory
progress                           Toggle display of progress meter
put [-Ppr] local [remote]          Upload file
pwd                                Display remote working directory
quit                               Quit sftp
rename oldpath newpath             Rename remote file
rm path                            Delete remote file
rmdir path                         Remove remote directory
symlink oldpath newpath            Symlink remote file
version                            Show SFTP version
!command                           Execute 'command' in local shell
!                                  Escape to local shell
?                                  Synonym for help

 

Changing Local Directory

You could also change your local systems directory from your remote session with the following command:

lcd

Displaying Local Directory Listing

To view any file that is located inside your local systems directory, run the following command:

lls

Making A Local Directory

To make a new directory in from your SFTP session to your local directory, type the following command replacing the bracket and newlocaldirectory.

lmkdir [newlocaldirectory]

Viewing Local Directory Listing

To see the local directory, not the remote directory that you are currently on, type the following command:

lpwd

Making Remote Directories

You can also make directories in your current remote SFTP session directory with the with the following command replacing the bracket and newremotedirectory.

mkdir [newremotedirectory]

Uploading Files

To upload files from your local system to your remote system, you could accomplish this with the put command followed by your local path and your remote path.

put [localfile] [remotefile]

An Example of using the “put” SFTP command.

Viewing Remote Working Directory

To view the current directory of your remote SFTP session, you can accomplish this with the following command:

pwd

Renaming Remote File

If you want to rename a file within your remote SFTP session, run the following command replacing the fileA(current name) and fileAnewname(new file name).

rename [fileA] [filenewname]

Removing Remote Files

To remove any files from your remote SFTP session, run the following rm command followed by the file you want to remove (in this example, fileA will be removed).

rm [fileA]

Removing Remote Directory

To remove any directory from your remote SFTP session, run the following rmdir command followed by the directory you want to (in this example, directoryA will be removed).

rmdir [directory]

Escaping To The Local Shell

If you would like to escape from your remote SFTP session and go to your local shell terminal, simply type the ! command to accomplish this.

!

What next?

Congratulations! This completes this tutorial on SFTP Commands. I hope that you found this information useful just like it was to me. Thank you for following along and feel free to check back with us for further updates,or to learn more about our VPS hosting solutions.