Quick Storage API in Bash with the SFTP cloud storage

Published {$created} by Carsten Blum

Sometimes you don’t need a full application or a script written in Go, PHP, or Python.With just a few command-line tools already available on macOS or Linux, you can use ftpGrid cloud FTP storage as your storage API for quick file backups.

This is perfect for developers, sysadmins, or anyone who wants to automate backups without installing extra dependencies.

Before starting this tutorial, you need an account with ftpGrid, which is a simple process outlined in our getting started with FTP/SFTP guide. If your are in doubt if managed FTP/SFTP hosting is for you, you can read our guide to ftpGrid's managed hosting.

Requirements

A macOS or Linux machine (Ubuntu/Debian works out of the box)
SFTP available in your terminal (which sftp)
An ftpGrid account with SFTP credentials

Step 1: Create a test file

echo "Hello from Bash and ftpGrid!" > hello.txt

Step 2: Upload a single file with SFTP

sftp PREFIX.username@edge1.ftpgrid.com:/uploads/ << EOF
put hello.txt
bye
EOF

This connects to ftpGrid and uploads hello.txt into /uploads.

Step 3: Upload multiple files at once

If you have a folder of backups:

sftp PREFIX.username@edge1.ftpgrid.com:/uploads/ <<EOF
mput *.txt
bye
EOF

The command mput uploads all .txt files in the current directory.

Step 4: Automating backups with cron

To run a backup every night at 2 AM, add this to your crontab:

0 2 * * * sftp PREFIX.username@edge1.ftpgrid.com:/backups/ <<EOF
mput /home/youruser/documents/*.pdf
bye
EOF

Step 5: Using `scp` as an alternative

For quick, one-line uploads you can also use scp:

scp hello.txt your_username@edge1.ftpgrid.com:/uploads/

To upload a folder recursively:

scp -r my_folder/ your_username@edge1.ftpgrid.com:/uploads/

Conclusion

With just a few lines in your terminal, you can back up files to ftpGrid’s cloud FTP storage.Whether it’s one file, multiple files, or a scheduled job, using SFTP or SCP from Bash gives you a lightweight and secure Storage API without writing a single line of application code.

Get started today with our Quick Start guide and explore the full FTP Cloud Storage page for more use cases.