Configuring the sftp Transfer Method (ASCII or Binary)

SFTP supports two transfer methods: ASCII and binary. In ASCII mode individual letters, numbers, and characters are transferred using their ASCII character code, and the receiving computer saves these in the correct text format for that system. During ASCII transfers between UNIX and Windows computers, newline characters are converted as appropriate for each system. (You can also manually configure newline character conversion if necessary.) In binary transfers, data is transferred to the server byte-by-byte with no data conversion.

Reflection for Secure IT also provides a smart transfer option called auto. In auto mode, the transfer method is determined by file extension. Files with specified file extensions use ASCII transfer; all other files use binary transfer. The default list of ASCII file types is txt, htm*, pl, php*. To modify this list for a given sftp session, use the setext command. To change the default file extension list, use the client keyword FileCopyAsciiExtensions.