How to use SFTP (with the multi-protocol client)

The topic How to use SFTP (introduction) and subsequent SFTP topics describe the SFTP features of SSHFTPClient. This topic demonstrates how SecureFileTransferClient can be used for SFTP.

At the most basic level of SFTP, assuming that the remote host, user and password are set, all that is required is to set the protocol to SFTP, which is done via the setProcotol method, as below:

The code above, by default, does not perform server validation. Server validation should always be enabled for production machines, so that the wrong server is not communicated with. To validate the server, the known_hosts file must be loaded, via the loadSSHServerValidation method:

Numerous other SSH settings, including those for client validation, algorithms and server compatibility settings can be accessed via the AdvancedSSHSettings class, accessed by the getAdvancedSSHSettings() method.

Other configuration options are available via the AdvancedGeneralSettings class, accessed by the getAdvancedSettings() method.

The following example illustrates the use of SecureFileTransferClient for SFTP, using both client and server validation. Public key authentication is used. Note that the client's public key must be registered with the server.

// basic settings
SecureFileTransferClient client = new SecureFileTransferClient();
client.setRemoteHost(host);
client.setUserName(user);
client.setProtocol(Protocol.SFTP);

// server validation
client.loadSSHServerValidation(knownHostsFile);

// public key authentication - must set explicitly to this auth type
client.getAdvancedSSHSettings().setAuthenticationType(SSHAuthenticationType.PUBLIC_KEY);
client.getAdvancedSSHSettings().setPrivateKeyFile(clientKeyFile);
client.getAdvancedSSHSettings().setPrivateKeyFilePassphrase(clientPassphrase);

// connect
client.connect();

// do stuff

// disconnect from server
client.disconnect();