Linux – Automatic FTP file transfer to and from Linux machines

ftplinux

Is it possible to copy files to my Linux machine from another Linux machine automatically with FTP? By "automatically," I mean that FTP would need to handle submitting a login/password combination, as well as copy files, on its own.

Both machines run Red Hat 5.1. I want to get, for example, the file /root/file from the second Linux machine onto my machine and put it under /var/tmp without entering any login/password manually.

I don’t have expect on my machine, and I don't want to use SSH authentication.

If this can't be done automatically by FTP, please suggest an alternate solution, such as a Python script.

Best Answer

You can use the lftp client program and use an FTP script.

lftp supports the ~/.netrc configuration file, in which you can store your credentials:

machine <hostname> login <user> password <password>

You can store a sequence of FTP commands in a file and have lftp execute them, like:

open <hostname>
cd /var/tmp
put /root/file optional_new_filename

The path in cd is on the remote host, the first argument to put is the local file.

Then, just run

lftp -f <filename>

Related Solutions

Linux – SFTP without password prompt (from linux to windows)

I'm not familiar with the freeftpd interface but it seems to support public/private key authentication.

First create an new key pair on your linux machine with ssh-keygen. When it asks you for a password leave it empty. This is important for not having to enter a password when logging in. Take a look into the folder ~/.ssh. There you find your private key id_rsa and your public key id_rsa.pub.

Now you just have to add the public key as authorized key for your user on the server. If it where a linux machine you could just use ssh-copy-id user@myServer. Maybe this also works in this case. If not copy it over manually and add it using the interface. I'm sure you'll figure it out ;-)

Note that you have to keep your private key private. Anyone who has that key would have access to your server. If you have multiple users or machines, create an own key for every one of them. This way you can easily revoke access to a certain user/machine by deleting that key on the server (e.g. if you lost your laptop).

Sorry I can't help you with the interface but since you haven't got an answer yet I figured this is better than nothing.

Windows – How to copy new files in a folder to an FTP location using a batch file

All the operations you're mentioning in your post can be automated with a WinSCP script. Have you tried WinSCP? It's super-powerful and free with tons of support. Below, is an example script of what your actions would look like:

# Connect
open ftp://user:password@example.com/ 
# Change remote directory
cd /home/user
# Force binary mode transfer
option transfer binary
# Download file to the local directory d:\
get examplefile.txt d:\
# This will Upload whole folder files and subfolders to current working directory
put d:\
# Disconnect
close
# Exit WinSCP
exit

Then you just invoke the script from a batch file.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux – SFTP without password prompt (from linux to windows)

Windows – How to copy new files in a folder to an FTP location using a batch file

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