| Original author(s) | Alexander V. Lukyanov |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 4.3.3 / October 20, 2011 |
| Operating system | UNIX-like |
| Type | FTP client |
| License | Free software (GPL) |
| Website | lftp.yar.ru |
lftp is a command-line file transfer program (FTP client) for UNIX and Unix-like systems. It was written by Alexander Lukyanov, and is made available under the GNU General Public License.
Besides FTP, it also supports FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, HFTP, FISH, and SFTP by specifying the desired protocol in a location URL. One feature which is especially handy is support for FXP i.e. data transfers between two FTP servers, bypassing the client machine. A BitTorrent client is also built-in as torrent command.
In addition to features common in advanced FTP clients, such as recursively mirroring entire directory trees, location bookmarks and resuming downloads, lftp also supports more advanced functionality. Transfers can be scheduled for execution at a later time, bandwidth can be throttled, transfer queues can be set up, and Unix shell-like job control is supported. The client can be fully scripted, instead of being used interactively.
Lftp was initially developed as part of the ftpclass package (announced August 1, 1996 in relcom.tcpip). Subsequently it grew and become a more capable program (e.g. mirroring capability was added), and therefore[1] the package was renamed to lftp in February 1997. The initial goals of development were robustness, automatic resuming of transfers, and increasing transfer speed by transferring parts of a file in parallel using several connections as well as by protocol pipelining. Version 2.0 introduced HTTP and IPv6 support in 1999, more protocols were added later.