Checking out why the SFTP ‘get’ is throwing the error not a regular file?

The answer is quite simple, add the SFTP option flag to transfer non-regular files.

At Bobcares, we get many requests to fix SFTP errors, as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s have a look into this SFTP error. We will also see how our Support Engineers fix this.

A snapshot on SFTP get and regular file

Before getting into the error, let’s familiarize what is SFTP.

SFTP aka Secure File Transfer Protocol ensures secure data transfer over SSH. Hence this is otherwise known as SSH File Transfer Protocol.

SFTP use get command to transfer remote files to a local system. For transferring regular files, we use a simple get command. But in case of non-regular files, we need to add option flags to the command.

But what are regular and non-regular files in Linux?

Files like text files, images, binary files, etc are regular files. All others are non-regular files. That is directories, symbolic links, etc. So, improper commands can end up in SFTP get errors. Let’s check out the below instance.

How we fix the error SFTP get ‘not a regular file’?

Recently, one of our customers approached us with an SFTP error. Our Support Engineers checked the error. The customer tried the get operation using the command,

get <directory-name>

And he got the error message,

Cannot download non-regular file: <filename>

The reason was clear, the command usage missed an important flag. That is, for transferring non-regular files or directories, we need to add -r flag. Where -r indicates recursive action.

Hence our Support Engineers corrected the code to,

get -r <directory-name>

And this fixed the error.

Alternatives to SFTP

SCP allows secure copying of files and directories between remote hosts. It relays on SSH to transfer data. The command to transfer file is,

scp username@hostname:/path/to/file /path/to/new/file

Similarly, for remote transfer of file, we use rsync. Rsync allows both remote and local file transfers securely.

[Still having trouble in transferring files remotely? – We’ll help you.]

Conclusion

In short, SFTP get not a regular file is an error message which indicates an incomplete command usage. So, either transfer the file recursively or use alternatives like SCP or rsync. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers help customer transfer files remotely.