Client Documentation
1. Introduction¶
SFTPPlus Client is a software for automating secure file transfers. It can connect to any remote file server as long as the server is compliant with at least one of the following supported file transfer protocols:
- FTP
- FTPS Explicit (AUTH SSL/TLS)
- FTPS Implicit
- SCP
- SFTP
The client was developed to allow any files placed into a local or remote directory to be transferred to a pre-configured destination using any of the protocols listed above.
By reading a set of transfer definition files, it will perform the transfers based on predefined steps.
Beside doing the actual file transfer, the SFTPPlus Client can execute external command to operate on the file to be transferred, before and after it is transferred. Ex: perform antivirus check, encrypt/descript files.
Optionally, all files can have a date and time stamp added to avoid overwriting files with duplicate names.
All local and remote actions are recorded in an detailed event log for audit purpose. Logs can be stored on a local file, or sent to Windows Event Service. All files can also be archived after processing.
We also develop a companion SFTPPlus Server which is provided as an additional software package. Beside being rigouroulsy tested against SFTPlus Server, SFTPlus Client was also tested and confirmed to work with a range of open source or proprietary file transfer servers ( VSFTP, ProFTPD, OpenSSH, BFTPD, Filezilla Server, Axway, CoreFTP, etc).
SFTPPlus Client is released using an independent versioning scheme. It works with any other server (including SFTPPlus Server) without requiring a specific server version.
1.1. Implementation details¶
SFTPPlus Client operates as a background running Unix daemon or Windows service.
Note
SFTPPlus Client is not an interactive FTP/SFTP file transfer client. For interactive operations we recommend using GUI clients like Filezilla or WinSCP.
It is implemented as an independent software which monitors local files or calls external commands for acting upon local or remote files.
SFTPPlus Client is implemented using Rexx programming language. SCP and SFTP transfers are executed using Putty psftp command line tool while FTP/FTPS transfers are executed using cURL command line tool. All command line tools and Rexx interpretor are provided together with SFTPPlus Client installation package.
For Windows, the SFTPPlus Client installation package also contains other 3rd party command line tools like md5sum, gpg, which can be used for implementing custom scripts that are executed before or after the transfer. For the full list of tools, please consult the installation root folder.