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| FTP, being the oldest of the three, is most widespread transfer protocol of nowadays. In its basic form it inherently insecure, sending all data (including passwords) unencrypted. There is also secure variants ([[ftps|FTP over TLS/SSL]]). FTP is functionally inferior to SFTP. Also it is less platform independent than later versions of SFTP, mainly in respect to directory listing. | FTP, being the oldest of the three, is most widespread transfer protocol of nowadays. In its basic form it inherently insecure, sending all data (including passwords) unencrypted. There is also secure variants ([[ftps|FTP over TLS/SSL]]). FTP is functionally inferior to SFTP. Also it is less platform independent than later versions of SFTP, mainly in respect to directory listing. | ||
| - | ===== Protocol Comparison ===== | ||
| - | The list below shows only those features which differ between the protocols, so it is not complete listing. | ||
| - | |||
| - | ^ Feature ^ SFTP ^ FTP ^ SCP ^ | ||
| - | ^ Security | Secure (SSH) | Optionally secure ([[ftps|FTP over TLS/SSL]]) | Secure (SSH). | | ||
| - | ^ Speed | Generally slowest (encryption and necessity to wait for packet confirmations). | Generally fastest file transfer (no encryption and efficient file transfer), yet transfer setup is slow, so transfer of large number of small files can be slow. | Medium (encryption, but efficient file transfer, yet it does not allow the transfer to be interrupted). | | ||
| - | ^ [[resume|Transfer resume]] | Supported. WinSCP supports resuming only since SFTP-2 (which introduces rename command). | Supported. | Unsupported. | | ||
| - | ^ Large files | Supports files over 4 GiB (uses 64-bit sizes). | Supports files over 4 GiB. | Does not support files over 4 GiB (32-bit boundary). | | ||
| - | ^ Append to end of file | Supported. | Supported. Unsupported by WinSCP. | Unsupported. | | ||
| - | ^ [[ui_progress#controlling_the_operation|Transfer cancellation]] | Supported. | Supported, but can be time-consuming. | Transfer cannot be canceled without termination of session. | | ||
| - | ^ Text (ASCII) [[transfer_mode|transfer mode]] | Supported since SFTP-4. For older versions WinSCP emulates text mode by converting files before transfer. | Supported. | Not supported by the protocol. WinSCP emulates text mode by converting file before transfer. | | ||
| - | ^ Directory operations | Recursive operations with directories (deletion, permissions change) must be performed separately for each file. Thus operations can take a long time, especially for directories with a large number of files. || Recursive operations with directories (deletion, permissions change), can be done with a single command (''rm'', ''chmod'', etc). Thus they are quick. On the other hand it limits some functionality. | | ||
| - | ^ [[task_rename|File renaming]] and [[task_move_duplicate#moving_remote_files|moving]] | Supported since SFTP-2. | Supported. | Supported (''mv''). | | ||
| - | ^ Direct [[task_move_duplicate#duplicating_remote_files|File duplication]] | Unsupported by the protocol. WinSCP can open a [[shell_session|separate shell session]] to execute the command. | Unsupported. | Supported (''cp''). | | ||
| - | ^ [[remote_command|Execution of arbitrary command]] | Unsupported by the protocol. WinSCP can open a [[shell_session|separate shell session]] to execute the command. | Unsupported. WinSCP allows user to execute arbitrary protocol command. | Supported as long as the command does not require user input. | | ||
| - | ^ [[ui_transfer#upload_options|Setting properties (time-stamp, permissions) of uploaded files]] | Supported. | Server needs to support ''MFMT'' extension. | Supported. | | ||
| - | ^ [[task_properties|Owner or group change]] | In SFTP-2 and SFTP-3, the owner and group can be changed only with knowledge of UID/GID. Since SFTP-4 even change using user or group name is allowed. | Supported (MFF). Unsupported by WinSCP. | Supported (''chown'', ''chgrp''). | | ||
| - | ^ [[ui_properties#checksum|Checksum calculation]] | Supported, if the server supports respective SFTP protocol extension. | Supported (XCRC, XMD5, XSHA). Unsupported by WinSCP. | Unsupported. | | ||
| - | ^ [[task_link|Link creation]] | It is possible to create and edit symbolic links since SFTP-3. Hard links are supported only since SFTP-6 (unsupported by WinSCP). | Unsupported. | It is possible to create both symbolic and hard links (''ln''). Symbolic links can be edited also. | | ||
| - | ^ User group list lookup | Unsupported. | Unsupported. | Supported (''groups''). | | ||
| - | ^ Influence of environment variables | Generally unaffected by environment variables. || As WinSCP uses shell, it is influenced by environment variables (date format, etc.). WinSCP requires the English environment. See [[requirements]]. | | ||
| - | ^ File modification [[timestamp|time-stamp]] | Theoretically the problem does not occur, as the protocol requires timestamps to be in UTC. Practically some of the SFTP servers have problems with DST. | Supported | Some shell commands are influenced by daylight-saving time. For example, the ''ls'' command can return a different time than ''scp''. Thus, after transfer, the time-stamp of the file can be different. Also there can be an additional difference caused by the server timezone offset. This causes trouble when comparing directories and [[task_synchronize|synchronization]]. | | ||
| - | ^ [[ui_login|Configuration]] | Generally, only login information is needed. || For a successful connection to a server it is often necessary to properly set up several configuration options on the [[ui_login_scp|Login dialog]]. | | ||