6.2.3 The open command: start a session

If you started PSFTP by double-clicking in the GUI, or just by typing psftp at the command line, you will need to open a connection to an SFTP server before you can issue any other commands (except help and quit).

To create a connection, type open host.name, or if you need to specify a user name as well you can type open [email protected]. You can optionally specify a port as well: open [email protected] 22.

Once you have issued this command, you will not be able to issue it again, even if the command fails (for example, if you mistype the host name or the connection times out). So if the connection is not opened successfully, PSFTP will terminate immediately.