<!-- START doctoc generated TOC please keep comment here to allow auto update -->
<!-- DON'T EDIT THIS SECTION, INSTEAD RE-RUN doctoc TO UPDATE -->
**Table of Contents**  *generated with [DocToc](https://github.com/thlorenz/doctoc)*

- [25 Zftp Function System](#25-zftp-function-system)
  - [25.1 Description](#251-description)
  - [25.2 Installation](#252-installation)
  - [25.3 Functions](#253-functions)
    - [25.3.1 Opening a connection](#2531-opening-a-connection)
    - [25.3.2 Directory management](#2532-directory-management)
    - [25.3.3 Status commands](#2533-status-commands)
    - [25.3.4 Retrieving files](#2534-retrieving-files)
    - [25.3.5 Sending files](#2535-sending-files)
    - [25.3.6 Closing the connection](#2536-closing-the-connection)
    - [25.3.7 Session management](#2537-session-management)
    - [25.3.8 Bookmarks](#2538-bookmarks)
    - [25.3.9 Other functions](#2539-other-functions)
  - [25.4 Miscellaneous Features](#254-miscellaneous-features)
    - [25.4.1 Configuration](#2541-configuration)
    - [25.4.2 Remote globbing](#2542-remote-globbing)
    - [25.4.3 Automatic and temporary reopening](#2543-automatic-and-temporary-reopening)
    - [25.4.4 Completion](#2544-completion)

<!-- END doctoc generated TOC please keep comment here to allow auto update -->

<span id="Zftp-Function-System"></span> <span
id="Zftp-Function-System-1"></span>

# 25 Zftp Function System

<span id="index-zftp-function-system"></span> <span
id="index-FTP_002c-functions-for-using-shell-as-client"></span>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Description-8"></span>

## 25.1 Description

This describes the set of shell functions supplied with the source
distribution as an interface to the zftp builtin command, allowing you
to perform FTP operations from the shell command line or within
functions or scripts. The interface is similar to a traditional FTP
client (e.g. the ftp command itself, see ftp(1)), but as it is entirely
done within the shell all the familiar completion, editing and globbing
features, and so on, are present, and macros are particularly simple to
write as they are just ordinary shell functions.

The prerequisite is that the zftp command, as described in [The zsh/zftp
Module](Zsh-Modules.html#The-zsh_002fzftp-Module) , must be available in
the version of zsh installed at your site. If the shell is configured to
load new commands at run time, it probably is: typing ‘zmodload
zsh/zftp’ will make sure (if that runs silently, it has worked). If this
is not the case, it is possible zftp was linked into the shell anyway:
to test this, type ‘which zftp’ and if zftp is available you will get
the message ‘zftp: shell built-in command’.

Commands given directly with zftp builtin may be interspersed between
the functions in this suite; in a few cases, using zftp directly may
cause some of the status information stored in shell parameters to
become invalid. Note in particular the description of the variables
$ZFTP_TMOUT, $ZFTP_PREFS and $ZFTP_VERBOSE for zftp.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Installation"></span> <span id="Installation-1"></span>

## 25.2 Installation

You should make sure all the functions from the Functions/Zftp directory
of the source distribution are available; they all begin with the two
letters ‘zf’. They may already have been installed on your system;
otherwise, you will need to find them and copy them. The directory
should appear as one of the elements of the $fpath array (this should
already be the case if they were installed), and at least the function
zfinit should be autoloaded; it will autoload the rest. Finally, to
initialize the use of the system you need to call the zfinit function.
The following code in your .zshrc will arrange for this; assume the
functions are stored in the directory \~/myfns:

<div class="example">

```zsh
fpath=(~/myfns $fpath)
autoload -U zfinit
zfinit
```

</div>

Note that zfinit assumes you are using the zmodload method to load the
zftp command. If it is already built into the shell, change zfinit to
zfinit -n. It is helpful (though not essential) if the call to zfinit
appears after any code to initialize the new completion system, else
unnecessary compctl commands will be given.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Zftp-Functions"></span> <span id="Functions-2"></span>

## 25.3 Functions

The sequence of operations in performing a file transfer is essentially
the same as that in a standard FTP client. Note that, due to a quirk of
the shell’s getopts builtin, for those functions that handle options you
must use ‘--’ rather than ‘-’ to ensure the remaining arguments are
treated literally (a single ‘-’ is treated as an argument).

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Opening-a-connection"></span>

### 25.3.1 Opening a connection

<span id="index-zfparams"></span>

zfparams \[ `host` \[ `user` \[ `password` ... \] \] \]

Set or show the parameters for a future zfopen with no arguments. If no
arguments are given, the current parameters are displayed (the password
will be shown as a line of asterisks). If a `host` is given, and either
the `user` or `password` is not, they will be prompted for; also, any
parameter given as ‘?’ will be prompted for, and if the ‘?’ is followed
by a string, that will be used as the prompt. As zfopen calls zfparams
to store the parameters, this usually need not be called directly.

A single argument ‘-’ will delete the stored parameters. This will also
cause the memory of the last directory (and so on) on the other host to
be deleted.

<span id="index-zfopen"></span>

zfopen \[ -1 \] \[ `host` \[ `user` \[ `password` \[ `account` \] \] \]
\]

If `host` is present, open a connection to that host under username
`user` with password `password` (and, on the rare occasions when it is
necessary, account `account`). If a necessary parameter is missing or
given as ‘?’ it will be prompted for. If `host` is not present, use a
previously stored set of parameters.

If the command was successful, and the terminal is compatible with xterm
or is sun-cmd, a summary will appear in the title bar, giving the local
host:directory and the remote host:directory; this is handled by the
function zftp_chpwd, described below.

Normally, the `host`, `user` and `password` are internally recorded for
later re-opening, either by a zfopen with no arguments, or automatically
(see below). With the option ‘-1’, no information is stored. Also, if an
open command with arguments failed, the parameters will not be retained
(and any previous parameters will also be deleted). A zfopen on its own,
or a zfopen -1, never alters the stored parameters.

Both zfopen and zfanon (but not zfparams) understand URLs of the form
ftp://`host`/`path...` as meaning to connect to the `host`, then change
directory to `path` (which must be a directory, not a file). The
‘ftp://’ can be omitted; the trailing ‘/’ is enough to trigger
recognition of the `path`. Note prefixes other than ‘ftp:’ are not
recognized, and that all characters after the first slash beyond `host`
are significant in `path`.

<span id="index-zfanon"></span>

zfanon \[ -1 \] `host`

Open a connection `host` for anonymous FTP. The username used is
‘anonymous’. The password (which will be reported the first time) is
generated as `user`@`host`; this is then stored in the shell parameter
$EMAIL_ADDR which can alternatively be set manually to a

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Directory-management"></span>

### 25.3.2 Directory management

<span id="index-zfcd"></span>

zfcd \[ `dir` \]

zfcd -

zfcd `old` `new`

Change the current directory on the remote server: this is implemented
to have many of the features of the shell builtin cd.

In the first form with `dir` present, change to the directory `dir`. The
command ‘zfcd ..’ is treated specially, so is guaranteed to work on
non-UNIX servers (note this is handled internally by zftp). If `dir` is
omitted, has the effect of ‘zfcd \~’.

The second form changes to the directory previously current.

The third form attempts to change the current directory by replacing the
first occurrence of the string `old` with the string `new` in the
current directory.

Note that in this command, and indeed anywhere a remote filename is
expected, the string which on the local host corresponds to ‘\~’ is
converted back to a ‘\~’ before being passed to the remote machine. This
is convenient because of the way expansion is performed on the command
line before zfcd receives a string. For example, suppose the command is
‘zfcd \~/foo’. The shell will expand this to a full path such as ‘zfcd
/home/user2/pws/foo’. At this stage, zfcd recognises the initial path as
corresponding to ‘\~’ and will send the directory to the remote host as
\~/foo, so that the ‘\~’ will be expanded by the server to the correct
remote host directory. Other named directories of the form ‘\~name’ are
not treated in this fashion.

<span id="index-zfhere"></span>

zfhere

Change directory on the remote server to the one corresponding to the
current local directory, with special handling of ‘\~’ as in zfcd. For
example, if the current local directory is \~/foo/bar, then zfhere
performs the effect of ‘zfcd \~/foo/bar’.

<span id="index-zfdir"></span>

zfdir \[ -rfd \] \[ - \] \[ `dir-options` \] \[ `dir` \]

Produce a long directory listing. The arguments `dir-options` and `dir`
are passed directly to the server and their effect is implementation
dependent, but specifying a particular remote directory `dir` is usually
possible. The output is passed through a pager given by the environment
variable $PAGER, or ‘more’ if that is not set.

The directory is usually cached for re-use. In fact, two caches are
maintained. One is for use when there is no `dir-options` or `dir`, i.e.
a full listing of the current remote directory; it is flushed when the
current remote directory changes. The other is kept for repeated use of
zfdir with the same arguments; for example, repeated use of ‘zfdir
/pub/gnu’ will only require the directory to be retrieved on the first
call. Alternatively, this cache can be re-viewed with the -r option. As
relative directories will confuse zfdir, the -f option can be used to
force the cache to be flushed before the directory is listed. The option
-d will delete both caches without showing a directory listing; it will
also delete the cache of file names in the current remote directory, if
any.

<span id="index-zfls"></span>

zfls \[ `ls-options` \] \[ `dir` \]

List files on the remote server. With no arguments, this will produce a
simple list of file names for the current remote directory. Any
arguments are passed directly to the server. No pager and no caching is
used.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Status-commands"></span>

### 25.3.3 Status commands

<span id="index-zftype"></span>

zftype \[ `type` \]

With no arguments, show the type of data to be transferred, usually
ASCII or binary. With an argument, change the type: the types ‘A’ or
‘ASCII’ for ASCII data and ‘B’ or ‘BINARY’, ‘I’ or ‘IMAGE’ for binary
data are understood case-insensitively.

<span id="index-zfstat"></span>

zfstat \[ -v \]

Show the status of the current or last connection, as well as the status
of some of zftp’s status variables. With the -v option, a more verbose
listing is produced by querying the server for its version of events,
too.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Retrieving-files"></span>

### 25.3.4 Retrieving files

The commands for retrieving files all take at least two options. -G
suppresses remote filename expansion which would otherwise be performed
(see below for a more detailed description of that). -t attempts to set
the modification time of the local file to that of the remote file: see
the description of the function zfrtime below for more information.

<span id="index-zfget"></span>

zfget \[ -Gtc \] `file1` ...

Retrieve all the listed files `file1` ... one at a time from the remote
server. If a file contains a ‘/’, the full name is passed to the remote
server, but the file is stored locally under the name given by the part
after the final ‘/’. The option -c (cat) forces all files to be sent as
a single stream to standard output; in this case the -t option has no
effect.

<span id="index-zfuget"></span>

zfuget \[ -Gvst \] `file1` ...

As zfget, but only retrieve files where the version on the remote server
is newer (has a later modification time), or where the local file does
not exist. If the remote file is older but the files have different
sizes, or if the sizes are the same but the remote file is newer, the
user will usually be queried. With the option -s, the command runs
silently and will always retrieve the file in either of those two cases.
With the option -v, the command prints more information about the files
while it is working out whether or not to transfer them.

<span id="index-zfcget"></span>

zfcget \[ -Gt \] `file1` ...

As zfget, but if any of the local files exists, and is shorter than the
corresponding remote file, the command assumes that it is the result of
a partially completed transfer and attempts to transfer the rest of the
file. This is useful on a poor connection which keeps failing.

Note that this requires a commonly implemented, but non-standard,
version of the FTP protocol, so is not guaranteed to work on all
servers.

<span id="index-zfgcp"></span>

zfgcp \[ -Gt \] `remote-file` `local-file`

zfgcp \[ -Gt \] `rfile1` ... `ldir`

This retrieves files from the remote server with arguments behaving
similarly to the cp command.

In the first form, copy `remote-file` from the server to the local file
`local-file`.

In the second form, copy all the remote files `rfile1` ... into the
local directory `ldir` retaining the same basenames. This assumes UNIX
directory semantics.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Sending-files"></span>

### 25.3.5 Sending files

<span id="index-zfput"></span>

zfput \[ -r \] `file1` ...

Send all the `file1` ... given separately to the remote server. If a
filename contains a ‘/’, the full filename is used locally to find the
file, but only the basename is used for the remote file name.

With the option -r, if any of the `files` are directories they are sent
recursively with all their subdirectories, including files beginning
with ‘.’. This requires that the remote machine understand UNIX file
semantics, since ‘/’ is used as a directory separator.

<span id="index-zfuput"></span>

zfuput \[ -vs \] `file1` ...

As zfput, but only send files which are newer than their remote
equivalents, or if the remote file does not exist. The logic is the same
as for zfuget, but reversed between local and remote files.

<span id="index-zfcput"></span>

zfcput `file1` ...

As zfput, but if any remote file already exists and is shorter than the
local equivalent, assume it is the result of an incomplete transfer and
send the rest of the file to append to the existing part. As the FTP
append command is part of the standard set, this is in principle more
likely to work than zfcget.

<span id="index-zfpcp"></span>

zfpcp `local-file` `remote-file`

zfpcp `lfile1` ... `rdir`

This sends files to the remote server with arguments behaving similarly
to the cp command.

With two arguments, copy `local-file` to the server as `remote-file`.

With more than two arguments, copy all the local files `lfile1` ... into
the existing remote directory `rdir` retaining the same basenames. This
assumes UNIX directory semantics.

A problem arises if you attempt to use zfpcp `lfile1` `rdir`, i.e. the
second form of copying but with two arguments, as the command has no
simple way of knowing if `rdir` corresponds to a directory or a
filename. It attempts to resolve this in various ways. First, if the
`rdir` argument is ‘.’ or ‘..’ or ends in a slash, it is assumed to be a
directory. Secondly, if the operation of copying to a remote file in the
first form failed, and the remote server sends back the expected failure
code 553 and a reply including the string ‘Is a directory’, then zfpcp
will retry using the second form.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Closing-the-connection"></span>

### 25.3.6 Closing the connection

<span id="index-zfclose"></span>

zfclose

Close the connection.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Session-management"></span>

### 25.3.7 Session management

<span id="index-zfsession"></span>

zfsession \[ -lvod \] \[ `sessname` \]

Allows you to manage multiple FTP sessions at once. By default,
connections take place in a session called ‘default’; by giving the
command ‘zfsession `sessname`’ you can change to a new or existing
session with a name of your choice. The new session remembers its own
connection, as well as associated shell parameters, and also the
host/user parameters set by zfparams. Hence you can have different
sessions set up to connect to different hosts, each remembering the
appropriate host, user and password.

With no arguments, zfsession prints the name of the current session;
with the option -l it lists all sessions which currently exist, and with
the option -v it gives a verbose list showing the host and directory for
each session, where the current session is marked with an asterisk. With
-o, it will switch to the most recent previous session.

With -d, the given session (or else the current one) is removed;
everything to do with it is completely forgotten. If it was the only
session, a new session called ‘default’ is created and made current. It
is safest not to delete sessions while background commands using zftp
are active.

<span id="index-zftransfer"></span>

zftransfer `sess1`:`file1` `sess2`:`file2`

Transfer files between two sessions; no local copy is made. The file is
read from the session `sess1` as `file1` and written to session `sess2`
as file `file2`; `file1` and `file2` may be relative to the current
directories of the session. Either `sess1` or `sess2` may be omitted
(though the colon should be retained if there is a possibility of a
colon appearing in the file name) and defaults to the current session;
`file2` may be omitted or may end with a slash, in which case the
basename of `file1` will be added. The sessions `sess1` and `sess2` must
be distinct.

The operation is performed using pipes, so it is required that the
connections still be valid in a subshell, which is not the case under
versions of some operating systems, presumably due to a system bug.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Bookmarks"></span>

### 25.3.8 Bookmarks

The two functions zfmark and zfgoto allow you to ‘bookmark’ the present
location (host, user and directory) of the current FTP connection for
later use. The file to be used for storing and retrieving bookmarks is
given by the parameter $ZFTP_BMFILE; if not set when one of the two
functions is called, it will be set to the file .zfbkmarks in the
directory where your zsh startup files live (usually \~).

<span id="index-zfmark"></span>

zfmark \[ `bookmark` \]

If given an argument, mark the current host, user and directory under
the name `bookmark` for later use by zfgoto. If there is no connection
open, use the values for the last connection immediately before it was
closed; it is an error if there was none. Any existing bookmark under
the same name will be silently replaced.

If not given an argument, list the existing bookmarks and the points to
which they refer in the form `user`@`host`:`directory`; this is the
format in which they are stored, and the file may be edited directly.

<span id="index-zfgoto"></span>

zfgoto \[ -n \] `bookmark`

Return to the location given by `bookmark`, as previously set by zfmark.
If the location has user ‘ftp’ or ‘anonymous’, open the connection with
zfanon, so that no password is required. If the user and host parameters
match those stored for the current session, if any, those will be used,
and again no password is required. Otherwise a password will be prompted
for.

With the option -n, the bookmark is taken to be a nickname stored by the
ncftp program in its bookmark file, which is assumed to be
\~/.ncftp/bookmarks. The function works identically in other ways. Note
that there is no mechanism for adding or modifying ncftp bookmarks from
the zftp functions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Other-functions"></span>

### 25.3.9 Other functions

Mostly, these functions will not be called directly (apart from zfinit),
but are described here for completeness. You may wish to alter
zftp_chpwd and zftp_progress, in particular.

<span id="index-zfinit"></span>

zfinit \[ -n \]

As described above, this is used to initialize the zftp function system.
The -n option should be used if the zftp command is already built into
the shell.

<span id="index-zfautocheck"></span>

zfautocheck \[ -dn \]

This function is called to implement automatic reopening behaviour, as
described in more detail below. The options must appear in the first
argument; -n prevents the command from changing to the old directory,
while -d prevents it from setting the variable do_close, which it
otherwise does as a flag for automatically closing the connection after
a transfer. The host and directory for the last session are stored in
the variable $zflastsession, but the internal host/user/password
parameters must also be correctly set.

<span id="index-zfcd_005fmatch"></span>

zfcd_match `prefix` `suffix`

This performs matching for completion of remote directory names. If the
remote server is UNIX, it will attempt to persuade the server to list
the remote directory with subdirectories marked, which usually works but
is not guaranteed. On other hosts it simply calls zfget_match and hence
completes all files, not just directories. On some systems, directories
may not even look like filenames.

<span id="index-zfget_005fmatch"></span>

zfget_match `prefix` `suffix`

This performs matching for completion of remote filenames. It caches
files for the current directory (only) in the shell parameter
$zftp_fcache. It is in the form to be called by the -K option of
compctl, but also works when called from a widget-style completion
function with `prefix` and `suffix` set appropriately.

<span id="index-zfrglob"></span>

zfrglob `varname`

Perform remote globbing, as describes in more detail below. `varname` is
the name of a variable containing the pattern to be expanded; if there
were any matches, the same variable will be set to the expanded set of
filenames on return.

<span id="index-zfrtime"></span>

zfrtime `lfile` `rfile` \[ `time` \]

Set the local file `lfile` to have the same modification time as the
remote file `rfile`, or the explicit time `time` in FTP format
CCYYMMDDhhmmSS for the GMT timezone. This uses the shell’s zsh/datetime
module to perform the conversion from GMT to local time.

<span id="index-zftp_005fchpwd_002c-supplied-version"></span>

zftp_chpwd

This function is called every time a connection is opened, or closed, or
the remote directory changes. This version alters the title bar of an
xterm-compatible or sun-cmd terminal emulator to reflect the local and
remote hostnames and current directories. It works best when combined
with the function chpwd. In particular, a function of the form

<div class="example">

```zsh
chpwd() {
  if [[ -n $ZFTP_USER ]]; then
    zftp_chpwd
  else
    # usual chpwd e.g put host:directory in title bar
  fi
}
```

</div>

fits in well.

<span id="index-zftp_005fprogress_002c-supplied-version"></span>

zftp_progress

This function shows the status of the transfer. It will not write
anything unless the output is going to a terminal; however, if you
transfer files in the background, you should turn off progress reports
by hand using ‘zstyle ’:zftp:\*’ progress none’. Note also that if you
alter it, any output *must* be to standard error, as standard output may
be a file being received. The form of the progress meter, or whether it
is used at all, can be configured without altering the function, as
described in the next section.

<span id="index-zffcache"></span>

zffcache

This is used to implement caching of files in the current directory for
each session separately. It is used by zfget_match and zfrglob.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Miscellaneous-Features"></span> <span
id="Miscellaneous-Features-1"></span>

## 25.4 Miscellaneous Features

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Configuration-2"></span>

### 25.4.1 Configuration

<span id="index-zftp-function-system_002c-configuration"></span> <span
id="index-zftp-function-system_002c-styles"></span> <span
id="index-styles-in-zftp-functions"></span>

Various styles are available using the standard shell style mechanism,
described in [The zsh/zutil
Module](Zsh-Modules.html#The-zsh_002fzutil-Module). Briefly, the command
‘zstyle ’:zftp:\*’ `style` `value` ...’. defines the `style` to have
value `value`; more than one value may be given, although that is not
useful in the cases described here. These values will then be used
throughout the zftp function system. For more precise control, the first
argument, which gives a pattern that matches *contexts* in which the
style applies, can be modified to include a particular function, as for
example ‘:zftp:zfget’: the style will then have the given value only in
the zfget function, and will override styles set under ‘:zftp:\*’. Note
that only the top level function name, as called by the user, is used;
calling of lower level functions is transparent to the user. Hence
modifications to the title bar in zftp_chpwd use the contexts
:zftp:zfopen, :zftp:zfcd, etc., depending where it was called from. The
following styles are understood:

<span id="index-progress_002c-zftp-style"></span>

progress

Controls the way that zftp_progress reports on the progress of a
transfer. If empty, unset, or ‘none’, no progress report is made; if
‘bar’ a growing bar of inverse video is shown; if ‘percent’ (or any
other string, though this may change in future), the percentage of the
file transferred is shown. The bar meter requires that the width of the
terminal be available via the $COLUMNS parameter (normally this is set
automatically). If the size of the file being transferred is not
available, bar and percent meters will simply show the number of bytes
transferred so far.

When zfinit is run, if this style is not defined for the context
:zftp:\*, it will be set to ‘bar’.

<span id="index-update_002c-zftp-style"></span>

update

Specifies the minimum time interval between updates of the progress
meter in seconds. No update is made unless new data has been received,
so the actual time interval is limited only by $ZFTP_TIMEOUT.

As described for progress, zfinit will force this to default to 1.

<span id="index-remote_002dglob_002c-zftp-style"></span>

remote-glob

If set to ‘1’, ‘yes’ or ‘true’, filename generation (globbing) is
performed on the remote machine instead of by zsh itself; see below.

<span id="index-titlebar_002c-zftp-style"></span>

titlebar

If set to ‘1’, ‘yes’ or ‘true’, zftp_chpwd will put the remote host and
remote directory into the titlebar of terminal emulators such as xterm
or sun-cmd that allow this.

As described for progress, zfinit will force this to default to 1.

<span id="index-chpwd_002c-zftp-style"></span>

chpwd

If set to ‘1’ ‘yes’ or ‘true’, zftp_chpwd will call the function chpwd
when a connection is closed. This is useful if the remote host details
were put into the terminal title bar by zftp_chpwd and your usual chpwd
also modifies the title bar.

When zfinit is run, it will determine whether chpwd exists and if so it
will set the default value for the style to 1 if none exists already.

Note that there is also an associative array zfconfig which contains
values used by the function system. This should not be modified or
overwritten.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Remote-globbing"></span>

### 25.4.2 Remote globbing

<span id="index-zftp-function-system_002c-remote-globbing"></span>

The commands for retrieving files usually perform filename generation
(globbing) on their arguments; this can be turned off by passing the
option -G to each of the commands. Normally this operates by retrieving
a complete list of files for the directory in question, then matching
these locally against the pattern supplied. This has the advantage that
the full range of zsh patterns (respecting the setting of the option
EXTENDED_GLOB) can be used. However, it means that the directory part of
a filename will not be expanded and must be given exactly. If the remote
server does not support the UNIX directory semantics, directory handling
is problematic and it is recommended that globbing only be used within
the current directory. The list of files in the current directory, if
retrieved, will be cached, so that subsequent globs in the same
directory without an intervening zfcd are much faster.

If the remote-glob style (see above) is set, globbing is instead
performed on the remote host: the server is asked for a list of matching
files. This is highly dependent on how the server is implemented, though
typically UNIX servers will provide support for basic glob patterns.
This may in some cases be faster, as it avoids retrieving the entire
list of directory contents.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Automatic-and-temporary-reopening"></span>

### 25.4.3 Automatic and temporary reopening

<span id="index-zftp-function-system_002c-automatic-reopening"></span>

As described for the zfopen command, a subsequent zfopen with no
parameters will reopen the connection to the last host (this includes
connections made with the zfanon command). Opened in this fashion, the
connection starts in the default remote directory and will remain open
until explicitly closed.

Automatic re-opening is also available. If a connection is not currently
open and a command requiring a connection is given, the last connection
is implicitly reopened. In this case the directory which was current
when the connection was closed again becomes the current directory
(unless, of course, the command given changes it). Automatic reopening
will also take place if the connection was close by the remote server
for whatever reason (e.g. a timeout). It is not available if the -1
option to zfopen or zfanon was used.

Furthermore, if the command issued is a file transfer, the connection
will be closed after the transfer is finished, hence providing a
one-shot mode for transfers. This does not apply to directory changing
or listing commands; for example a zfdir may reopen a connection but
will leave it open. Also, automatic closure will only ever happen in the
same command as automatic opening, i.e a zfdir directly followed by a
zfget will never close the connection automatically.

Information about the previous connection is given by the zfstat
function. So, for example, if that reports:

<div class="example">

```zsh
Session:        default
Not connected.
Last session:   ftp.bar.com:/pub/textfiles
```

</div>

then the command zfget file.txt will attempt to reopen a connection to
ftp.bar.com, retrieve the file /pub/textfiles/file.txt, and immediately
close the connection again. On the other hand, zfcd .. will open the
connection in the directory /pub and leave it open.

Note that all the above is local to each session; if you return to a
previous session, the connection for that session is the one which will
be reopened.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<span id="Completion-3"></span>

### 25.4.4 Completion

Completion of local and remote files, directories, sessions and
bookmarks is supported. The older, compctl-style completion is defined
when zfinit is called; support for the new widget-based completion
system is provided in the function Completion/Zsh/Command/\_zftp, which
should be installed with the other functions of the completion system
and hence should automatically be available.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This document was generated on *May 14, 2022* using [*texi2html
5.0*](http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/).  
Zsh version 5.9, released on May 14, 2022.
