SFTP from command line?

[Autosys]

Hi there

I'm trying to write a small script that will loop through all the files in a directory (for file in ls) and then to SFTP them one at a time onto my remote server.

My SFTP Command looks like this: sftp user@server

Very basic I know, I was wondering if there was a way to pass an extra param to sftp (say -f filename) of the file that I would like to put onto the remote server. Another switch that would be useful I guess would be to first specify the target directory as well.

Is it better to use the -B Batchfile option in order to achieve this? I tried it but when I run the command:

psftp user@server -B batchfile I get the following error:

usage: sftp [-1vC] [-osshopt = value] [user@]host

Any help would be great!
Thx

 

[feherke]

Hi

No idea about [tt]sftp[/tt], I preffer the old good [tt]ftp[/tt]. You could give it a try like this :

ftp -u "ftp://myname:password@example.com/destination/directory/" filename.ext

Feherke.

http://rootshell.be/~feherke/

 

[PHV]

Something like this ?
for file in $(ls); do
echo "cd /path/to/remotedir\nput $file\nquit" | sftp user@server
done

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886

 

[Autosys]

Thanks PHV I tried your solution but am getting a weird error ...

bash-2.05$ echo "cd basel\nput test.txt\nquit" | sftp sftpbasel@server
Connecting to server...
sftp > Couldn't canonicalise: Failure
sftp >
bash-2.05$

As you can see above, basel is my remote directory and I want to put the file test.txt in that directory.

Thanks again .... apologies .. not a UNIX expert at all

 

[PHV]

When you call sftp like this:
[tt]sftp sftpbasel@server[/tt]
how do you manually transfer test.txt to the basel remote directory ?

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886

 

[feherke]

Hi

PHP's code is [tt]ksh[/tt]. For [tt]bash[/tt] you must add a -e option too the [tt]echo[/tt], otherwise the [tt]\n[/tt] will not be expanded to new line character.

echo [red]-e[/red] "cd basel\nput test.txt\nquit" | sftp sftpbasel@server

Feherke.

http://rootshell.be/~feherke/

 

[Autosys]

Works now - added the -e switch to my echo. thanks for the good advice PHV, not using the -e would obviously work in a normal shell.

Thanks feherke.

 

[Annihilannic]

Personally I find scp more suitable than sftp when scripting transfers.

Annihilannic.

 

[Autosys]

Guys you won't believe this but I'm so useless!!! What you've explained to me before works fine on the command line but my below script now doesn't work - it gives me the usage list every time I run it ..

Any ideas please - Sorry! I can at least confirm that is hasn't taken me all day to write this script.


#!/bin/ksh

for file in `ls *.txt`; do

ftpstring=`echo "cd basel\nput $file\nquit" | sftp sftpbasel@server

$ftpstring

done

exit

 

[Annihilannic]

Looks like you're missing a closing backquote "`" after the sftp command.

Annihilannic.

 

[Autosys]

Sorry no the back tick is there I've just missed it out when copying my text

 

[Annihilannic]

Personally I would do it like this:

scp *.txt sftpasel@server:basel/

Annihilannic.

 

[Autosys]

Thanks for the info Annihilannic - When I try it the command just hangs and nothing happens .... no copying taking place

 

[Annihilannic]

In that case, try:

#!/bin/ksh

for file in *.txt; do
    echo "cd basel\nput $file\nquit" | sftp sftpbasel@server
done

Were you trying to save the sftp output in $ftpstring for any particular reason?

Annihilannic.

 

[PHV]

#!/bin/ksh
for file in $(ls *.txt); do
echo "cd basel\nput $file\nquit" | sftp sftpbasel@server
done

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886