FTP: Text Commands

Understanding some basic FTP commands will be useful as you will probably get stuck in a command line necessity at some point.

Lesson 10 / Quiz

ftp [options] host

FTP is an interactive connection so once you login in you can issue commands to place files on the server or retrieve files from the server.  Once you are logged in you will be at a prompt.

get file_name                   this will retrieve the file named to the local directory you are in

mget files_names             this command will retrieve multiple files at one time

put file_name                     this will transfer the a local file to the server

mput file_names               this will transfer multiple files to the server at one time

ls                                          list the contents of the directory

pwd                                     present working directory

quit                                      stop the FTP session

You can see all of the options by using the "?" once you are connected.

ftp> ?
Commands may be abbreviated.  Commands are:

!        debug        mdir        qc        send
$        dir        mget        sendport    site
account        disconnect    mkdir        put        size
append        exit        mls        pwd        status
ascii        form        mode        quit        struct
bell        get        modtime        quote        system
binary        glob        mput        recv        sunique
bye        hash        newer        reget        tenex
case        help        nmap        rstatus        tick
cd        idle        nlist        rhelp        trace
cdup        image        ntrans        rename        type
chmod        lcd        open        reset        user
close        ls        prompt        restart        umask
cr        macdef        passive        rmdir        verbose
delete        mdelete        proxy        runique        ?

Once you have a list of options you can use the ? followed by the command you need more information on to get a brief summary of the command as you see here.

ftp> ? mget
mget          get multiple files