How to run the sftp command with a password from Bash script?

Another way would be to use lftp:

lftp sftp://user:password@host  -e "put local-file.name; bye"

The disadvantage of this method is that other users on the computer can read the password from tools like ps and that the password can become part of your shell history.

A more secure alternative which is available since LFTP 4.5.0 is setting the LFTP_PASSWORD environment variable and executing lftp with --env-password. Here's a full example:

export LFTP_PASSWORD="just_an_example"
lftp --env-password sftp://user@host  -e "put local-file.name; bye"

# Destroy password after use
export LFTP_PASSWORD=""

LFTP also includes a cool mirroring feature (can include delete after confirmed transfer --Remove-source-files):

lftp -e 'mirror -R /local/log/path/ /remote/path/' --env-password -u user sftp.foo.com

You have a few options other than using public key authentication:

1. Use keychain
2. Use sshpass (less secured but probably that meets your requirement)
3. Use expect (least secured and more coding needed)

If you decide to give sshpass a chance here is a working script snippet to do so:

export SSHPASS=your-password-here
sshpass -e sftp -oBatchMode=no -b - sftp-user@remote-host << !
   cd incoming
   put your-log-file.log
   bye
!

EXPECT is a great program to use.

On Ubuntu install it with:

sudo apt-get install expect

On a CentOS Machine install it with:

yum install expect

Lets say you want to make a connection to a sftp server and then upload a local file from your local machine to the remote sftp server

#!/usr/bin/expect

spawn sftp [email protected]
expect "password:"
send "yourpasswordhere\n"
expect "sftp>"
send "cd logdirectory\n"
expect "sftp>"
send "put /var/log/file.log\n"
expect "sftp>"
send "exit\n"
interact

This opens a sftp connection with your password to the server.

Then it goes to the directory where you want to upload your file, in this case "logdirectory"

This uploads a log file from the local directory found at /var/log/ with the files name being file.log to the "logdirectory" on the remote server