lftp --help
lftp can handle six file access methods - ftp, ftps, http, https, hftp, fish and file (https and ftps are only available when lftp is compiled with openssl library). You can specify the method to use in `open URL' command, e.g. `open http://www.us.kernel.org/pub/linux'. hftp is ftp-over-http-proxy protocol. It can be used automatically instead of ftp if ftp:proxy is set to `http://proxy[:port]'. Fish is a protocol working over an ssh connection.
Every operation in lftp is reliable, that is any not fatal error is ignored and the operation is repeated. So if downloading breaks, it will be restarted from the point automatically. Even if ftp server does not support REST command, lftp will try to retrieve the file from the very beginning until the file is transferred completely.
lftp has shell-like command syntax allowing you to launch several commands in parallel in background (&). It is also possible to group commands within () and execute them in background. All background jobs are executed in the same single process. You can bring a foreground job to background with ^Z (c-z) and back with command `wait' (or `fg' which is alias to `wait'). To list running jobs, use command `jobs'. Some commands allow redirecting their output (cat, ls, ...) to file or via pipe to external command. Commands can be executed conditionally based on termination status of previous command (&&, ||).
If you exit lftp when some jobs are not finished yet, lftp will move itself to nohup mode in background. The same happens when you have a real modem hangup or when you close an xterm.
lftp has builtin mirror which can download or update a whole directory tree. There is also reverse mirror (mirror -R) which uploads or updates a directory tree on server.
There is command `at' to launch a job at specified time in current context, command `queue' to queue commands for sequential execution for current server, and much more.
On startup, lftp executes /etc/lftp.conf and then ~/.lftprc and ~/.lftp/rc. You can place aliases and `set' commands there. Some people prefer to see full protocol debug, use `debug' to turn the debug on. Use `debug 3' to see only greeting messages and error messages.
lftp has a number of settable variables. You can use `set -a' to see all variables and their values or `set -d' to see list of defaults. Variable names can be abbreviated and prefix can be omitted unless the rest becomes ambiguous.
If lftp was compiled with ssl support, then it includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit. (http://www.openssl.org/)
! shell command
Launch shell or shell command.
!ls
To do a directory listing of the local host.
alias [name [value]]
Define or undefine alias name. If value is omitted, the alias is undefined, else it takes the value value. If no argument is given the current aliases are listed.
alias dir ls -lF alias less zmore
anon
Sets the user to anonymous. This is the default.
at time [ -- command ]
Wait until the given time and execute given (optional) command. See also at(1) .
bookmark [subcommand]
The bookmark command controls bookmarks.
add <name> [<loc>] add current place or given location to bookmarks and bind to given name del <name> remove bookmark with name edit start editor on bookmarks file import <type> import foreign bookmarks list list bookmarks (default)
cache [subcommand]
The cache command controls local memory cache. The following subcommands are recognized:
stat print cache status (default) on|off turn on/off caching flush flush cache size lim set memory limit, -1 means unlimited expire Nx set cache expiration time to N seconds (x=s) minutes (x=m) hours (x=h) or days (x=d)
cat files
cat outputs the remote file(s) to stdout. (See also more, zcat and zmore)
cd rdir
Change current remote directory. The previous remote directory is stored as `-'. You can do `cd -' to change the directory back. The previous directory for each site is also stored on disk, so you can do `open site; cd -' even after lftp restart.
chmod mode files
Change permission mask on remote files. The mode must be an octal number.
close [-a]
Close idle connections. By default only with the current server, use -a to close all idle connections.
command cmd args...
execute given command ignoring aliases.
debug [-o file] level|off
Switch debugging to level or turn it off. Use -o to redirect the debug output to a file.
echo [-n] string
guess what it does.
exit code
exit bg
exit will exit from lftp or move to background if jobs are active. If no jobs are active, code is passed to operating system as lftp's termination status. If code is omitted, the exit code of last command is used.
`exit bg' forces moving to background when cmd:move-background is false.
fg
Alias for `wait'.
find [directory]
List files in the directory (current directory by default) recursively. This can help with servers lacking ls -R support. You can redirect output of this command.
ftpcopy
Obsolete. Use one of the following instead:
get ftp://... -o ftp://... get -O ftp://... file1 file2... put ftp://... mput ftp://.../* mget -O ftp://... ftp://.../*or other combinations to get FXP transfer (directly between two ftp servers). lftp would fallback to plain copy (via client) if FXP transfer cannot be initiated or ftp:use-fxp is false.
get [-E] [-a] [-c] [-O base] rfile [-o lfile] ...
Retrieve the remote file rfile and store it as the local file lfile. If -o is omitted, the file is stored to local file named as base name of rfile. You can get multiple files by specifying multiple instances of rfile [and -o lfile]. Does not expand wildcards, use mget for that.
-c continue, reget -E delete remote files after successful transfer -a use ascii mode (binary is the default) -O <base> specifies base directory or URL where files should be placed
Examples:
get README get README -o debian.README get README README.mirrors get README -o debian.README README.mirrors -o debian.mirrors get README -o ftp://some.host.org/debian.README get README -o ftp://some.host.org/debian-dir/ (end slash is important)
glob [-d] [-a] [-f] command patterns
Glob given patterns containing metacharacters and pass result to given command. E.g. ``glob echo *''.
-f plain files (default) -d directories -a all types
help [cmd]
Print help for cmd or if no cmd was specified print a list of available commands.
jobs [-v]
List running jobs. -v means verbose, several -v can be specified.
kill all|job_no
Delete specified job with job_no or all jobs. (For job_no see jobs)
lcd ldir
Change current local directory ldir. The previous local directory is stored as `-'. You can do `lcd -' to change the directory back.
lpwd
Print current working directory on local machine.
ls params
List remote files. You can redirect output of this command to file or via pipe to external command. By default, ls output is cached, to see new listing use rels or cache flush.
mget [-c] [-d] [-a] [-E] [-O base] files
Gets selected files with expanded wildcards.
-c continue, reget. -d create directories the same as file names and get the files into them instead of current directory. -E delete remote files after successful transfer -a use ascii mode (binary is the default) -O <base> specifies base directory or URL where files should be placed
mirror [OPTS] [remote [local]]
Mirror specified remote directory to local directory.
-c, --continue continue a mirror job if possible
-e, --delete delete files not present at remote site
-s, --allow-suid set suid/sgid bits according to remote site
-n, --only-newer download only newer files (-c won't work)
-r, --no-recursion don't go to subdirectories
-p, --no-perms don't set file permissions
--no-umask don't apply umask to file modes
-R, --reverse reverse mirror (put files)
-L, --dereference download symbolic links as files
-N, --newer-than FILE download only files newer than the file
-P, --parallel[=N] download N files in parallel
-i RX, --include RX include matching files
-x RX, --exclude RX exclude matching files
-t Nx, --time-prec Nx set time precision to N seconds (x=s)
minutes (x=m) hours (x=h) or days (x=d)
default - mirror:time-precision setting
-T Nx, --loose-time-prec set time precision for imprecise time
default - mirror:loose-time-precision setting
-v, --verbose[=level] verbose operation
--use-cache use cached directory listings
--Remove-source-files remove files after transfer (use with caution)
When using -R, the first directory is local and the second is remote. If the second directory is omitted, base name of first directory is used. If both directories are omitted, current local and remote directories are used.
RX is an extended regular expression, just like in egrep(1) .
Note that when -R is used (reverse mirror), symbolic links are not created on server, because ftp protocol cannot do it. To upload files the links refer to, use `mirror -RL' command (treat symbolic links as files).
Verbosity level can be selected using --verbose=level option or by several -v options, e.g. -vvv. Levels are:
0 - no output (default) 1 - print actions 2 - +print not deleted file names (when -e is not specified) 3 - +print directory names which are mirrored
--only-newer turns off file size comparision and uploads/downloads only newer files even if size is different. By default older files are downloaded/uploaded if size is different.
mkdir [-p] dir(s)
Make remote directories. If -p is used, make all components of paths.
module module [ args ]
Load given module using dlopen(3) function. If module name does not contain a slash, it is searched in directories specified by module:path variable. Arguments are passed to module_init function. See README.modules for technical details.
more files
Same as `cat files | more'. if PAGER is set, it is used as filter. (See also cat, zcat and zmore)
mput [-c] [-d] [-a] [-E] [-O base] files
Upload files with wildcard expansion. By default it uses the base name of local name as remote one. This can be changed by `-d' option.
-c continue, reput -d create directories the same as in file names and put the files into them instead of current directory -E delete remote files after successful transfer (dangerous) -a use ascii mode (binary is the default) -O <base> specifies base directory or URL where files should be placed
mrm file(s)
Same as `glob rm'. Removes specified file(s) with wildcard expansion.
mv file1 file2
Rename file1 to file2.
nlist [args]
List remote
file names
open [-e cmd] [-u user[,pass]] [-p port] host|url
Select an ftp server.
pget [OPTS] rfile [-o lfile ]
Gets the specified file using several connections. This can speed up transfer, but loads the net heavily impacting other users. Use only if you really have to transfer the file ASAP, or some other user may go mad :) Options:
-n maxconn set maximum number of connections (default 5)
put [-E] [-a] [-c] [-O base] lfile [-orfile]
Upload lfile with remote name rfile. If -o omitted, the base name of lfile is used as remote name. Does not expand wildcards, use mput for that.
-o <rfile> specifies remote file name (default - basename of lfile) -c continue, reput it requires permission to overwrite remote files -E delete local files after successful transfer (dangerous) -a use ascii mode (binary is the default) -O <base> specifies base directory or URL where files should be placed
pwd
Print current remote directory.
queue [-n num ] cmd
Add the given command to queue for sequential execution. Each site has its own queue. `-n' adds the command before the given item in the queue. Don't try to queue `cd' or `lcd' commands, it may confuse lftp. Instead do the cd/lcd before `queue' command, and it will remember the place in which the command is to be done. It is possible to queue up an already running job by `queue wait <jobno>', but the job will continue execution even if it is not the first in queue.
queue --delete|-d [index or wildcard expression]
Delete one or more items from the queue. If no argument is given, the last entry in the queue is deleted.
queue --move|-m <index or wildcard expression> [index] Move the given items before the given queue index, or to the end if no destination is given.
> get file & [1] get file > queue wait 1 > queue get another_file > cd a_directory > queue get yet_another_file
queue -d 3 Delete the third item in the queue. queue -m 6 4 Move the sixth item in the queue before the fourth. queue -m "get*zip" 1 Move all commands matching "get*zip" to the beginning of the queue. (The order of the items is preserved.) queue -d "get*zip" Delete all commands matching "get*zip".
quote cmd
For FTP - send the command uninterpreted. Use with caution - it can lead to unknown remote state and thus will cause reconnect. You cannot be sure that any change of remote state because of quoted command is solid - it can be reset by reconnect at any time.
For HTTP - specific to HTTP action. Syntax: ``quote <command> [<args>]''. Command may be ``set-cookie'' or ``post''.
open http://www.site.net quote set-cookie "variable=value; othervar=othervalue" set http:post-content-type application/x-www-form-urlencoded quote post /cgi-bin/script.cgi "var=value&othervar=othervalue" > local_file
reget rfile [-o lfile]
Same as `get -c'.
rels [args]
Same as `ls', but ignores the cache.
renlist [args]
Same as `nlist', but ignores the cache.
repeat [delay] [command]
Repeat the command. Between the commands a delay inserted, by default 1 second. Example:
repeat at tomorrow -- mirror repeat 1d mirror
reput lfile [-o rfile]
Same as `put -c'.
rm [-r] [-f] files
Remove remote files. Does not expand wildcards, use mrm for that. -r is for recursive directory remove. Be careful, if something goes wrong you can lose files. -f supress error messages.
rmdir dir(s)
Remove remote directories.
scache [session]
List cached sessions or switch to specified session.
set [var [val]]
Set variable to given value. If the value is omitted, unset the variable. Variable name has format ``name/closure'', where closure can specify exact application of the setting. See below for details. If set is called with no variable then only altered settings are listed. It can be changed by options:
-a list all settings, including default values -d list only default values, not necessary current ones
site site_cmd
Execute site command site_cmd and output the result. You can redirect its output.
sleep interval
Sleep given time interval and exit. Interval is in seconds by default, but can be suffixed with 'm', 'h', 'd' for minutes, hours and days respectively. See also at.
source file
Execute commands recorded in file file.
suspend
Stop lftp process. Note that transfers will be also stopped until you continue the process with shell's fg or bg commands.
user user [pass]
user URL [pass]
Use specified info for remote login. If you specify an URL with user name, the entered password will be cached so that futute URL references can use it.
version
Print lftp version.
wait [jobno]
wait all
Wait for specified job to terminate. If jobno is omitted, wait for last backgrounded job.
`wait all' waits for all jobs termination.
zcat files
Same as cat, but filter each file through zcat. (See also cat, more and zmore)
zmore files
Same as more, but filter each file through zcat. (See also cat, zcat and more)
On startup, lftp executes ~/.lftprc and ~/.lftp/rc. You can place aliases and `set' commands there. Some people prefer to see full protocol debug, use `debug' to turn the debug on.
There is also a system-wide startup file in /etc/lftp.conf. It can be in different directory, see FILES section.
lftp has the following settable variables (you can also use `set -a' to see all variables and their values):
set cmd:verify-path/hftp://* false cd directory &
If ftp:proxy starts with http://, hftp (ftp over http proxy) is used instead of ftp automatically.
The name of variables can be abbreviated unless it becomes ambiguous. The prefix before `:' can be omitted too. You can set one variable several times for different closures, and thus you can get a particular settings for particular state. The closure is to be specified after variable name separated with slash `/'.
The closure for `dns:', `net:', `ftp:', `http:', `hftp:' domain variables is currently just the host name as you specify it in the `open' command (with some exceptions where closure is meaningless, e.g. dns:cache-size). For some `cmd:' domain variables the closure is current URL without path. For other variables it is not currently used. See examples in the sample lftp.conf.
Certain commands and settings take a time interval parameter. It has the format Nx[Nx...], where N is time amount and x is time unit: d - days, h - hours, m - minutes, s - seconds. Default unit is second. E.g. 5h30m. Also the interval can be `infinity', `inf', `never', `forever' - it means infinite interval. E.g. `sleep forever' or `set dns:cache-expire never'.
Lftp can speed up ftp operations by sending several commands at once and then checking all the responses. See ftp:sync-mode variable. Sometimes this does not work, thus synchronous mode is the default. You can try to turn synchronous mode off and see if it works for you. It is known that some network software dealing with address translation works incorrectly in the case of several FTP commands in one network packet.
RFC959 says: ``The user-process sending another command before the completion reply would be in violation of protocol; but server-FTP processes should queue any commands that arrive while a preceding command is in progress''. Also, RFC1123 says: ``Implementors MUST NOT assume any correspondence between READ boundaries on the control connection and the Telnet EOL sequences (CR LF).'' and ``a single READ from the control connection may include more than one FTP command''.
So it must be safe to send several commands at once, which speeds up operation a lot and seems to work with all Unix and VMS based ftp servers. Unfortunately, windows based servers often cannot handle several commands in one packet, and so cannot some broken routers.
Alexander V. Lukyanov lav@yars.free.net