What is FTP in Linux?

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is a simple protocol to transfer files from one machine to another.

In Linux, we can establish an FTP connection between two machines by using the command ftp. To successfully transfer files over FTP, we must have read permissions on the source system and write permissions on the target system.

When FTP was created, security was not a major concern. Any data, including files and passwords, transferred over FTP is not encrypted. Hence, it is strongly suggested not to use FTP over the internet. If we need to transfer the data securely, we need to use scp or sftp.

Establishing the FTP connection

To establish an FTP connection, we use the ftp command. The syntax for the ftp command is:

ftp [options] [host]

In the above snippet, options can be replaced by several options that can alter the default behavior of the FTP connection. We can find the available options and their descriptions in the table below:

host is replaced by the IP address or domain name of the remote machine, e.g.:

ftp 192.168.1.1

ftp domain.com

The host address might also contain a port number.

If the connection is established successfully, the terminal will show a confirmation message. This confirmation message might be different for different servers.

Most FTP servers are usually password protected. Hence, the terminal will prompt the user to enter the username and password after the confirmation message.

If the username and password are correct, a confirmation message will appear, and the prompt of the terminal will change to ftp>.

Once the connection is established, there are several commands that we can use over FTP. We will briefly discuss a few of those commands below:

FTP commands

There are multiple commands that we can use to perform different operations over FTP.

Following are some commonly used FTP commands with their descriptions:

We can find all the available FTP commands with their descriptions here.

Following are the examples of commonly performed operations over FTP and their commands:

Changing the current directory on the local machine

We use the lcd command to change the current directory on the local machine.

The syntax for the lcd command is as follows:

ftp> lcd [new_path]

For example, the following snippet changes the current working directory to “NewFolder” on the local machine:

ftp> lcd NewFolder

Changing the current directory on a remote machine

We use the cd command to change the current directory on the remote machine. We can use the ls command to list the files and folders in the current working directory.

The syntax for the cd command is as follows:

ftp> cd [new_path]

For example, the following snippet changes the current working directory to “NewFolder” on the remote machine:

ftp> cd NewFolder

Downloading a file

We use the get command to download a single file and the mget command to download multiple files from the remote machine to the local machine.

The syntax for the get and mget commands are as follows:

ftp> get [filename]

ftp> mget [filename-1] [filename-2] [filename-3] ...

In the above snippets of code, filename is replaced by the name and extension of the file.

Consider the following two examples:

ftp> get abc.txt

ftp> mget abc.txt def.txt

In the above two examples, the get command is used to download a single file named ‘abc.txt,’ and the mget command is used to download two files named ‘abc.txt’ and ‘def.txt’.

In the case of multiple files, the terminal prompts the user to confirm the download for each file.

Uploading a file

We use the put command to upload a single file and the mput command to upload multiple files from the local machine to the remote machine.

The syntax for the put and mput commands are as follows:

ftp> put [filename]

ftp> mput [filename-1] [filename-2] [filename-3] ...

In the above snippets of code, filename is replaced by the name and extension of the file.