lftp

An excellent file client program

Description

The lftp command is an excellent file client program that supports various file transfer protocols, including FTP, SFTP, HTTP, and FTPS. lftp supports tab completion; if you forget a command, double-pressing the Tab key will show the available options.

Syntax

lftp (options) (parameters)

Options

-f: Specify a script file for lftp to execute;
-c: Execute the specified commands and then exit;
--help: Display help information;
--version: Display the version number.

Parameters

Site: The IP address or domain name of the site to visit.

Examples

Logging into FTP

lftp username:password@ftp_address:port (default is 21)

You can also log in without a username first, and then use the login command within the lftp interface to log in with a specific account (password will not be displayed).

Viewing Files and Changing Directories

ls
cd path/to/ftp/directory

Downloading

While get works, you can also use:

mget -c *.pdf    # Download all PDF files with resume support (continue).
mirror aaa/      # Download the entire aaa directory, including subdirectories.
pget -c -n 10 file.dat   # Download file.dat using up to 10 threads with resume support. The default thread count can be set via pget:default-n.

Uploading

Similarly, put and mput are used for files.

mirror -R local_directory_name

Upload the local directory recursively (including subdirectories) to the FTP site.

Mode Settings

set ftp:charset gbk

If the remote FTP site uses GBK encoding, set this accordingly. Replace gbk with utf8 if needed.

set file:charset utf8

Set the local charset to UTF-8.

set ftp:passive-mode 1

Enable passive mode. Some sites require either passive or active mode to log in; this switch controls that. 0 means do not use passive mode.

Bookmarks

The command line also supports bookmarks. At the lftp prompt:

bookmark add ustc

This saves the current FTP site with the label ustc. Later, from the shell terminal, you can simply run lftp ustc to automatically log in and enter the directory.

bookmark edit

Invokes an editor to manually modify bookmarks. Bookmarks are stored in a simple text file where usernames and passwords might be visible.

Configuration File

vim /etc/lftp.conf

Typically, I add these lines:

set ftp:charset gbk
set file:charset utf8
set pget:default-n 5

This avoids having to enter these commands every time. You can use Tab and help within lftp to see other set options.