---
name: "sftp-server"
section: "8"
platform: "macos"
package: "OpenSSH"
version: "354.120.2"
release: "macOS 26.5"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/sftp-server"
---

# sftp-server(8)

OpenSSH SFTP server subsystem

## NAME

**sftp-server** – OpenSSH SFTP server subsystem

## SYNOPSIS

**sftp-server** \[**-ehR**\] \[**-d** *start\_directory*\] \[**-f** *log\_facility*\] \[**-l** *log\_level*\] \[**-P** *denied\_requests*\] \[**-p** *allowed\_requests*\] \[**-u** *umask*\]

**sftp-server** **-Q** *protocol\_feature*

## DESCRIPTION

**sftp-server** is a program that speaks the server side of SFTP protocol to stdout and expects client requests from stdin. **sftp-server** is not intended to be called directly, but from [sshd(8)](/sshd/8.md) using the **Subsystem** option.

Command-line flags to **sftp-server** should be specified in the **Subsystem** declaration. See [sshd\_config(5)](/sshd_config/5.md) for more information.

Valid options are:

- **-d** *start\_directory*

  Specifies an alternate starting directory for users. The pathname may contain the following tokens that are expanded at runtime: %% is replaced by a literal '%', %d is replaced by the home directory of the user being authenticated, and %u is replaced by the username of that user. The default is to use the user's home directory. This option is useful in conjunction with the [sshd\_config(5)](/sshd_config/5.md) **ChrootDirectory** option.

- **-e**

  Causes **sftp-server** to print logging information to stderr instead of syslog for debugging.

- **-f** *log\_facility*

  Specifies the facility code that is used when logging messages from **sftp-server**. The possible values are: DAEMON, USER, AUTH, LOCAL0, LOCAL1, LOCAL2, LOCAL3, LOCAL4, LOCAL5, LOCAL6, LOCAL7. The default is AUTH.

- **-h**

  Displays **sftp-server** usage information.

- **-l** *log\_level*

  Specifies which messages will be logged by **sftp-server**. The possible values are: QUIET, FATAL, ERROR, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, DEBUG1, DEBUG2, and DEBUG3. INFO and VERBOSE log transactions that **sftp-server** performs on behalf of the client. DEBUG and DEBUG1 are equivalent. DEBUG2 and DEBUG3 each specify higher levels of debugging output. The default is ERROR.

- **-P** *denied\_requests*

  Specifies a comma-separated list of SFTP protocol requests that are banned by the server. **sftp-server** will reply to any denied request with a failure. The **-Q** flag can be used to determine the supported request types. If both denied and allowed lists are specified, then the denied list is applied before the allowed list.

- **-p** *allowed\_requests*

  Specifies a comma-separated list of SFTP protocol requests that are permitted by the server. All request types that are not on the allowed list will be logged and replied to with a failure message.

  Care must be taken when using this feature to ensure that requests made implicitly by SFTP clients are permitted.

- **-Q** *protocol\_feature*

  Queries protocol features supported by **sftp-server**. At present the only feature that may be queried is “requests”, which may be used to deny or allow specific requests (flags **-P** and **-p** respectively).

- **-R**

  Places this instance of **sftp-server** into a read-only mode. Attempts to open files for writing, as well as other operations that change the state of the filesystem, will be denied.

- **-u** *umask*

  Sets an explicit [umask(2)](/umask/2.md) to be applied to newly-created files and directories, instead of the user's default mask.

On some systems, **sftp-server** must be able to access */dev/log* for logging to work, and use of **sftp-server** in a chroot configuration therefore requires that [syslogd(8)](/syslogd/8.md) establish a logging socket inside the chroot directory.

## SEE ALSO

[sftp(1)](/sftp/1.md), [ssh(1)](/ssh/1.md), [sshd\_config(5)](/sshd_config/5.md), [sshd(8)](/sshd/8.md) T. Ylonen and S. Lehtinen, *SSH File Transfer Protocol*, draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-02.txt, October 2001, work in progress material.

## HISTORY

**sftp-server** first appeared in OpenBSD 2.8.

## AUTHORS

Markus Friedl ⟨*markus@openbsd.org*⟩