Using SFTP with Golang

Learn how to use SFTP with Golang, a popular programming language.

Uploading and downloading files programatically with Golang is a great way to automate transfers or build out support for SFTP inside you application.

How to use SFTP with Golang

To interact with SFTP servers in Go, you can use the github.com/pkg/sftp package, which provides SFTP support on top of github.com/pkg/ssh. Here's a basic guide on how to use Go with SFTP:

1. Install Dependencies: First, you need to install the required dependencies using go get:

   go get golang.org/x/crypto/ssh
   go get github.com/pkg/sftp

2. Create an SSH Client and Connect to the Server: Below is an example of how to connect to an SFTP server using Go:

   package main
   
   import (
       "fmt"
       "golang.org/x/crypto/ssh"
       "github.com/pkg/sftp"
       "os"
   )
   
   func main() {
       // SFTP connection parameters
       host := "sftp.example.com"
       port := 22
       user := "your_username"
       password := "your_password"
   
       // Create SSH client configuration
       config := &ssh.ClientConfig{
           User: user,
           Auth: []ssh.AuthMethod{
               ssh.Password(password),
           },
           HostKeyCallback: ssh.InsecureIgnoreHostKey(),
       }
   
       // Connect to the SSH server
       conn, err := ssh.Dial("tcp", fmt.Sprintf("%s:%d", host, port), config)
       if err != nil {
           fmt.Println("Failed to connect to SSH server:", err)
           return
       }
       defer conn.Close()
   
       // Open SFTP session
       sftpClient, err := sftp.NewClient(conn)
       if err != nil {
           fmt.Println("Failed to open SFTP session:", err)
           return
       }
       defer sftpClient.Close()
   
       // Now you can perform SFTP operations using the sftpClient
   }

3. Perform SFTP Operations: Once you've established an SFTP connection, you can perform various operations such as uploading files, downloading files, listing directory contents, creating directories, etc. Here are a few examples:

   • Upload a file:

     localFile, err := os.Open("/path/to/local/file.txt")
     if err != nil {
         fmt.Println("Failed to open local file:", err)
         return
     }
     defer localFile.Close()
     
     remoteFile, err := sftpClient.Create("/path/to/remote/file.txt")
     if err != nil {
         fmt.Println("Failed to create remote file:", err)
         return
     }
     defer remoteFile.Close()
     
     _, err = io.Copy(remoteFile, localFile)
     if err != nil {
         fmt.Println("Failed to upload file:", err)
         return
     }

   • Download a file:

     remoteFile, err := sftpClient.Open("/path/to/remote/file.txt")
     if err != nil {
         fmt.Println("Failed to open remote file:", err)
         return
     }
     defer remoteFile.Close()
     
     localFile, err := os.Create("/path/to/local/file.txt")
     if err != nil {
         fmt.Println("Failed to create local file:", err)
         return
     }
     defer localFile.Close()
     
     _, err = io.Copy(localFile, remoteFile)
     if err != nil {
         fmt.Println("Failed to download file:", err)
         return
     }

4. Close the Connection: After you've finished with the SFTP operations, make sure to close the SFTP session and the SSH connection:

   // Close SFTP session
   sftpClient.Close()
   
   // Close SSH connection
   conn.Close()

By following these steps, you can use Go to interact with SFTP servers and perform various file operations. Make sure to handle errors appropriately when dealing with network connections and file operations.

Using Golang and SFTP with Couchdrop

Couchdrop has full support for SFTP uploads with Golang. Simply use your Couchdrop hostname and credentials and you can connect to Couchdrop like any other SFTP server.

Couchdrop also has a comprehensive API, that you can find couchdrop-api