Common FTP Commands

There are many different FTP commands. These are just a few of the most commonly used ones.

On this page, the following system is used for clarification purposes: The command is printed in bold black, while the variable information is printed in bold red. For example:

open hostname

means type the word "open," and then the hostname of the site you are connecting to, such as:

open ftp.myhost.com

Other basic information about using FTP:

• The local machine is the one you are sitting at.

• The remote machine (or remote host) is the machine you are connecting to.

• A directory is what Windows users call a folder.

• The local working directory is the one that you are in at the moment, on the machine you are sitting at.

• The remote working directory is the one you are in at the moment, on the remote machine.

• UNIX-based machines do not handle spaces in filenames the way Windows machines do. If the file you are transferring contains spaces, rename it before uploading it. (You can actually get around this by putting the filename in quotes, but unless it's absolutely essential that the spaces remain in the file name, you should rename the file to something without spaces, such as by substituting the underscore character for the spaces, before uploading the file. Saves headaches later.)

• UNIX is case-sensitive, so FILE.HTM, file.HTM, and file.htm would be three different files on a UNIX server. Make sure to type the filenames using the correct cases.

• If your FTP session remains idle for more than a minute or so (the exact time is variable depending on the server administrator's preferences), your FTP session will time out and you will have to log in again.

• When you delete a remote directory or file using command-line FTP, it really is gone. There's no retrieving it from the recycle bin. So be certain before you delete anything.

The Commands (Note: The hyphens used in this list are not part of the commands.)

I. Opening and closing a connection

• ftp - starts an FTP session.

• open hostname - connects to the specified host.

• user - starts the login process if the server hasn't done so automatically.

• ? - displays a list of all FTP commands.

• help command name - displays help about the specified command.

• close - closes the connection to the specified host, but not the FTP session itself.

• quit or bye - terminates the connection and the FTP session.

II. Browsing on a remote machine

• dir - returns a directory listing of the remote machine.

• ls - same as dir, but provides a simpler listing of filenames.

• cd remote directory - changes working directory on the remote host.

• cd (by itself) - changes working directory to home directory on the remote computer.

• cd .. - moves to the parent directory (up one level in the directory structure on the remote host).

III. Other directory-related commands

• pwd - displays on the local machine the name of the current working directory (cwd) that you are in on the remote machine.

• lcd directory - changes the default directory on the local machine.

• mkdir name - creates a directory of the specified name in the cwd on the remote machine.

• rmdir name - removes (permanently deletes) the specified directory on the remote machine.

IV. Changing the file transfer mode

• binary - changes transfer mode to binary mode. Use binary mode to transfer files ending in .au, .aiff, .bin, .doc, .exe, .gif, .gz, .jpg, .jpeg, .mpg, .mpeg, .mov, .pdf, .png, .ps, .qt, .tar, .tiff, .tif, .wav and .zip
  
• ascii - changes transfer mode to ASCII. You can use ASCII mode tro transfer files ending in .cgi, .pl, .pm, .txt, .php, .shtml, .html and .htm

V. File-related commands.

• get filename - copies file from the remote machine to the current local directory.

• mget filename 1 filename2 etc. - copies multiple specified files from the remote machine to the current local directory.

• put filename - copies the specified file from the local machine to the cwd of the remote machine.

• mput filename1 filename2 etc. - copies multiple specified files from the local machine to the cwd of the remote machine.

• delete filename - deletes the specified file in the cwd on the remote machine.

• mdelete filename filename etc. - deletes the specified multiple files in the cwd of the remote machine.

• rename oldname newname - renames a file on the remote machine.