GNU Emacs Manual - Remote Files

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## Remote Files

You can refer to files on other machines using a special file name syntax:

    /host:filename
    /user@host:filename

When you do this, Emacs uses the FTP program to read and write files on the specified host. It logs in through FTP using your user name or the name user. It may ask you for a password from time to time; this is used for logging in on host.

Normally, if you do not specify a user name in a remote file name, that means to use your own user name. But if you set the variable `ange-ftp-default-user` to a string, that string is used instead. (The Emacs package that implements FTP file access is called `ange-ftp`.)

You can entirely turn off the FTP file name feature by setting the variable `file-name-handler-alist` to `nil`.

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