SFTP dir command

One of the key commands in the SFTP command set is the dir command. The dir command is primarily used to list the contents of a directory on a remote server. This article aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the SFTP dir command and its various uses.

The Basics

The basic syntax of the dir command in an SFTP environment is simply dir . When this command is issued, it provides a list of files and directories in the current working directory on the remote server. The dir command, much like its counterpart in a regular shell environment, provides a simple, straightforward way to view the contents of a directory. The dir command can also be used with a specific directory name. For instance, dir /home/user/documents would list the contents of the 'documents' directory in the 'user' home directory.

Understanding the Output

The output of the dir command in an SFTP environment provides a simple list of files and directories in the current directory on the remote server. For more detailed information on files and directories, you can use the dir -l command within the SFTP environment. dir -l provides a detailed list of files and directories, including permissions, ownership, size, and modification time. For example, dir -l /documents would list the contents of the documents directory, including detailed information about each file and directory. Here is an example of the output:

sftp> dir -l
-rw-r--r--    1 0        0         1486129 Mar 26 19:32 my_file.pdf
-rw-r--r--    1 0        0         1486129 Mar 26 19:46 another_file.pdf

-rw-r--r-- : this part of the line is the file permissions. The first character - signifies that this is a file. A d would mean it is a directory. The next three characters rw- show that the owner of the file has read and write permissions, but not execute permissions. The next three characters r-- mean that the group has only read permission. The last three characters r-- mean that all other users also have only read permission 1 : This number signifies the number of hard links to the file. In this case, there's only one link 0 : This is the user ID of the owner of the file. In this case, the owner's user ID is 0, which typically belongs to the root user in a Unix-like system 0 : This is the group ID of the file. The group ID is also 0, which typically signifies the root group in a Unix-like system 1486129 : This is the size of the file in bytes, which in this case is the same for both files Mar 26 19:32 and Mar 26 19:46 : These are the dates and times that the files were last modified my_file.pdf and another_file.pdf : These are the names of the files.