SFTP: Another Secure Alternative to FTP

OpenSSH also has the SFTP program, which runs over an encrypted SSH session but whose commands mimic those of FTP. SFTP can be more convenient to use than SCP when you are uncertain of the locations of the files you want to copy, because it has the directory browsing abilities of FTP. Unlike FTP, SFTP doesn't support anonymous logins.

Here is a sample login sequence that logs in, gets help on the available commands, and downloads a file to the local server:

     [root@bigboy tmp]# sftp 192.168.1.200
     Connecting to 192.168.1.200...
     root@192.168.1.200's password:
     sftp> help
     Available commands:
     cd path                       Change remote directory to 'path'
     lcd path                      Change local directory to 'path'
     chgrp grp path                Change group of file 'path' to 'grp'
     chmod mode path               Change permissions of file 'path' to
     'mode'
     ...
     ...
     sftp> ls
     ..
     ..
     anaconda-ks.cfg
     install.log
     install.log.syslog
     ..
     ..
     sftp> get install.log
     install.log                        100%  17KB  39.4KB/s   00:00
     sftp> exit
     [root@bigboy tmp]#