The ftp: URL Format

This article describes the ftp: URL format, which are URLs for accessing FTP resources.

What it is used for

The ftp scheme is used for accessing files through the FTP protocol, which is a historical terminal-based file exchange system still rather popular for some purposes, though has replaced in many cases by a rather large number of alternative, secure and improved technologies like HTTP, TFTP, SCP, SFTP, and BitTorrent.

General ftp: URL Format

The ftp: scheme format is generally of the form:

ftp://username:password@hostname:port/folders/subfolders/document;type=i
---   ----------------- -------- ---- ------------------ -------- ------
(1)   (2)               (3)      (4)  (5)                (6)      (7)

1. FTP Scheme

This will be "ftp", though sometimes "ftps" are encountered, which are FTP over SSL/TLS transport.

2. User Authentification

The credentials for accessing the FTP server, which if they are missing will usually be replaced with the username "anonymous" and the password "your@email.com" (where this might be the email specified in your user agent).

3. Hostname

The hostname of the FTP server.

4. Port Number

The port of the FTP server, the :port part is optional, in which case defaults to 21.

5. Directory location ("CWD"s)

Each slash delimited portion of the directory location is called a "CWD" portion. As the browser will perform a "CWD" command for each directory name.

6. Document

Gets the document specified from the FTP server.

7. Typecode

This can be one of three possible type codes:

a	Perform a RETR with mode "a"
i	Perform a RETR with mode "i"
d	Perform a NLST ("Name List") and interpret the results as a file directory listing.