How to retrieve a file from a server via SFTP?

Another option is to consider looking at the JSch library. JSch seems to be the preferred library for a few large open source projects, including Eclipse, Ant and Apache Commons HttpClient, amongst others.

It supports both user/pass and certificate-based logins nicely, as well as all a whole host of other yummy SSH2 features.

Here's a simple remote file retrieve over SFTP. Error handling is left as an exercise for the reader :-)

JSch jsch = new JSch();

String knownHostsFilename = "/home/username/.ssh/known_hosts";
jsch.setKnownHosts( knownHostsFilename );

Session session = jsch.getSession( "remote-username", "remote-host" );    
{
  // "interactive" version
  // can selectively update specified known_hosts file 
  // need to implement UserInfo interface
  // MyUserInfo is a swing implementation provided in 
  //  examples/Sftp.java in the JSch dist
  UserInfo ui = new MyUserInfo();
  session.setUserInfo(ui);

  // OR non-interactive version. Relies in host key being in known-hosts file
  session.setPassword( "remote-password" );
}

session.connect();

Channel channel = session.openChannel( "sftp" );
channel.connect();

ChannelSftp sftpChannel = (ChannelSftp) channel;

sftpChannel.get("remote-file", "local-file" );
// OR
InputStream in = sftpChannel.get( "remote-file" );
  // process inputstream as needed

sftpChannel.exit();
session.disconnect();

A nice abstraction on top of Jsch is Apache commons-vfs which offers a virtual filesystem API that makes accessing and writing SFTP files almost transparent. Worked well for us.

This was the solution I came up with http://sourceforge.net/projects/sshtools/ (most error handling omitted for clarity). This is an excerpt from my blog

SshClient ssh = new SshClient();
ssh.connect(host, port);
//Authenticate
PasswordAuthenticationClient passwordAuthenticationClient = new PasswordAuthenticationClient();
passwordAuthenticationClient.setUsername(userName);
passwordAuthenticationClient.setPassword(password);
int result = ssh.authenticate(passwordAuthenticationClient);
if(result != AuthenticationProtocolState.COMPLETE){
     throw new SFTPException("Login to " + host + ":" + port + " " + userName + "/" + password + " failed");
}
//Open the SFTP channel
SftpClient client = ssh.openSftpClient();
//Send the file
client.put(filePath);
//disconnect
client.quit();
ssh.disconnect();

hierynomus/sshj has a complete implementation of SFTP version 3 (what OpenSSH implements)

Example code from SFTPUpload.java

package net.schmizz.sshj.examples;

import net.schmizz.sshj.SSHClient;
import net.schmizz.sshj.sftp.SFTPClient;
import net.schmizz.sshj.xfer.FileSystemFile;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

/** This example demonstrates uploading of a file over SFTP to the SSH server. */
public class SFTPUpload {

    public static void main(String[] args)
            throws IOException {
        final SSHClient ssh = new SSHClient();
        ssh.loadKnownHosts();
        ssh.connect("localhost");
        try {
            ssh.authPublickey(System.getProperty("user.name"));
            final String src = System.getProperty("user.home") + File.separator + "test_file";
            final SFTPClient sftp = ssh.newSFTPClient();
            try {
                sftp.put(new FileSystemFile(src), "/tmp");
            } finally {
                sftp.close();
            }
        } finally {
            ssh.disconnect();
        }
    }

}

JSch library is the powerful library that can be used to read file from SFTP server. Below is the tested code to read file from SFTP location line by line

JSch jsch = new JSch();
        Session session = null;
        try {
            session = jsch.getSession("user", "127.0.0.1", 22);
            session.setConfig("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");
            session.setPassword("password");
            session.connect();

            Channel channel = session.openChannel("sftp");
            channel.connect();
            ChannelSftp sftpChannel = (ChannelSftp) channel;

            InputStream stream = sftpChannel.get("/usr/home/testfile.txt");
            try {
                BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(stream));
                String line;
                while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
                    System.out.println(line);
                }

            } catch (IOException io) {
                System.out.println("Exception occurred during reading file from SFTP server due to " + io.getMessage());
                io.getMessage();

            } catch (Exception e) {
                System.out.println("Exception occurred during reading file from SFTP server due to " + e.getMessage());
                e.getMessage();

            }

            sftpChannel.exit();
            session.disconnect();
        } catch (JSchException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (SftpException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

Please refer the blog for whole program.

Try edtFTPj/PRO, a mature, robust SFTP client library that supports connection pools and asynchronous operations. Also supports FTP and FTPS so all bases for secure file transfer are covered.

I found complete working example for SFTP in java using JSCH API http://kodehelp.com/java-program-for-uploading-file-to-sftp-server/

You also have JFileUpload with SFTP add-on (Java too): http://www.jfileupload.com/products/sftp/index.html

I use this SFTP API called Zehon, it's great, so easy to use with a lot of sample code. Here is the site http://www.zehon.com

The best solution I've found is Paramiko. There's a Java version.