In computing, the SSH File Transfer Protocol or SFTP is a network protocol that provides file transfer and manipulation functionality over any reliable data stream. It is typically used with the SSH-2 protocol (TCP port 22) to provide secure file transfer, but is intended to be usable with other protocols as well. RAM (Random Access Memory) Look up computing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Secure Shell or SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged over a secure channel between two computers. ...

Capabilities

Compared to the earlier, deprecated, SCP protocol, which allows only file transfers, the SFTP protocol allows for a range of operations on remote files – it is more like a remote file system protocol. An SFTP client's extra capabilities compared to an SCP client include resuming interrupted transfers, directory listings, and remote file removal. For the same reason it is reasonable to implement a GUI SFTP client, but not a GUI SCP client. Secure Copy or SCP is a means of securely transferring computer files between a local and a remote host or between two remote hosts, using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. ... It has been suggested that Crash counting be merged into this article or section. ... In computing, a client is a system that accesses a (remote) service on another computer by some kind of network. ... “GUI” redirects here. ...

SFTP attempts to be more platform-independent than SCP; for instance, with SCP, the expansion of wildcards specified by the client was up to the server, whereas SFTP's design avoids this problem. While SCP was most frequently implemented on Unix platforms, there exist SFTP servers for most platforms. The term wildcard character has the following meanings: // In telecommunications, a wildcard character is a character that may be substituted for any of a defined subset of all possible characters. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ...

A common misconception is that SFTP is simply FTP run over SSH; in fact it is a new protocol designed from the ground up by the IETF SECSH working group. It is sometimes confused with Simple File Transfer Protocol. This article is about the File Transfer Protocol standardised by the IETF. For other file transfer protocols, see File transfer protocol (disambiguation). ... Secure Shell or SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged over a secure channel between two computers. ... The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standard bodies; and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The term SFTP has other meanings. ...

The protocol itself does not provide authentication and security; it expects the underlying protocol to secure this. SFTP is most often used as subsystem of SSH protocol version 2 implementations, having been designed by the same working group. However, it is possible to run it over SSH-1 (and some implementations support this) or other data streams. Running SFTP server over SSH-1 is not platform independent as SSH-1 does not support the concept of subsystems. An SFTP client willing to connect to an SSH-1 server needs to know the path to the SFTP server binary on the server side. Secure Shell or SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged over a secure channel between two computers. ...

The Secure Internet Live Conferencing (SILC) protocol defines the SFTP as its default file transfer protocol. In SILC the SFTP data is not protected with SSH but SILC's secure packet protocol is used to encapsulate the SFTP data into SILC packet and to deliver it peer-to-peer. This is possible as SFTP is designed protocol independent. SILC (Secure Internet Live Conferencing protocol) is a protocol which provides secure conferencing services over the Internet. ...

For uploads, the transferred files may be associated with their basic attributes, such as timestamps. This is an advantage over the common FTP protocol, which does not have provision for uploads to include the original date/timestamp attribute. The abbreviation FTP can refer to: The File Transfer Protocol used on the Internet. ...

Standardization

The protocol is not yet an Internet standard. The latest specification is an expired Internet Draft, which defines version 6 of the protocol. Currently the most widely used version is 3, implemented by the popular OpenSSH SFTP server. Many Microsoft Windows-based SFTP implementations use version 4 of the protocol, which lessened its ties with the Unix platform. An Internet standard is a specification for an innovative internetworking technology or methodology, which the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) ratified as an open standard after the innovation underwent peer review. ... Internet Drafts (IDs) are a series of documents published by the IETF. They are drafts for RFCs. ... OpenSSH (Open Secure Shell) is a set of computer programs providing encrypted communication sessions over a computer network using the SSH protocol. ... Windows redirects here. ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ...

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) "Secsh Status Pages" search tool contains links to all versions of the Internet draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer which describes this protocol.

SFTP client

The term SFTP can also refer to Secure file transfer program, a command-line program that implements the client part of this protocol, such as that supplied with OpenSSH. A command line interface or CLI is a method of interacting with a computer by giving it lines of textual commands (that is, a sequence of characters) either from keyboard input or from a script. ... A computer program is a collection of instructions that describe a task, or set of tasks, to be carried out by a computer. ... In computing, a client is a system that accesses a (remote) service on another computer by some kind of network. ... OpenSSH (Open Secure Shell) is a set of computer programs providing encrypted communication sessions over a computer network using the SSH protocol. ...

The sftp program provides an interactive interface similar to that of traditional FTP clients. This article is about the File Transfer Protocol standardised by the IETF. For other file transfer protocols, see File transfer protocol (disambiguation). ...

Some implementations of the scp program actually use the SFTP protocol to perform file transfers; however, some such implementations are still able to fallback to the SCP protocol if the server does not provide SFTP service. Secure Copy or SCP is a means of securely transferring computer files between a local and a remote host or between two remote hosts, using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. ...

References

• IETF Secsh Status Pages
• Comparison with SCP

See also

• List of SFTP servers
• Comparison of FTP clients (including SFTP)
• FISH
• FTPS
• SSHFS - Mounting remote filesystem using SFTP and SSH
• Red Bird SFX - Macs, Linuxs, Unixs, Windows (95, 98, Me, 2000, 2003, XP), and even Windows Vista client for SCP, and SFTP
• WinSCP - Free Windows client with SFTP capability