Use FTP command line to get file with absolute path

ftp

I am wondering if with an FTP command line utility, you can use the FTP get command to get a file with an absolute path, as opposed to having to cd into each successive directory to get a file.

When I type

ftp> get pub/sdc.tgz

Or even this (with one or two slashes before pub)

ftp> get /pub/sdc.tgz

It tells me it cannot find the file:

local: /pub/sdc.tgz remote: /pub/sdc.tgz
ftp: local: /pub/sdc.tgz: No such file or directory

However when I instead do

ftp> cd pub
ftp> get sdc.tgz

It works totally fine.

Is there any correct syntax in the ftp command line to get a file with an absolute path, or do I need to cd into pub first to do it?

(FYI: What I am trying to do is use a PERL script that runs daily that saves a file to an FTP server, then a later script that will 1. get the file — which I am not opposed to using wget to do — and 2. delete the file after I get it, which I need to do with FTP. I want the file to be deleted by the second script, so that in the future if the first script has trouble saving the file to the FTP server, the second script will know that there was an error because the file is not there. I could save it with different names too, but I do not want to pollute the FTP server with a ton of files from different days.)

Best Answer

It's because when you use FTP's Get, and don't specify a local path/file name, it tries to use the same path/name as the Remote file.

This error:

ftp: local: /pub/sdc.tgz: No such file or directory

Is telling you it can't find the file on the LOCAL machine. So my assumption would be that you don't have a "pub" folder on in the root of your local drive.

Syntax: get remote-file [local-file]

Parameter(s):

remote-file - Specifies the remote file to copy.

local-file - Specifies the name to use on the local computer. If not specified, the file is given the remote-file name.

So try something like:

ftp> get pub/sdc.tgz c:\temp\sdc.tgz

or perhaps

ftp> get pub/sdc.tgz .\sdc.tgz

To download it to the current folder.

See here for more info on Get usage.

Related Solutions

Windows – FTP server via command-line

Have a look at CrushFTP

CrushFTP is a powerful file server supporting standard secure file transfer protocols. The 'Crush' in CrushFTP comes from its ability to compress transfers on the fly seamlessly making for faster transfers! Combining the inline compression support with the high speed transfer options, you have the fastest file transfer options for high latency connections possible.

In about 10 clicks you can be fully configured and ready to login.

Linux – FTP download list of absolute paths

If you mind you can use rsync with something like

rsync -av --files-from=/path/yourlist.txt / remote:/backup

where in

/path/yourlist.txt you can put your list of files with the full path
/ The path to add to the filename in your list (If they are full pathname /)
remote:/backup the remote host name and its relative path

You can read more searching for --files-from from the man rsync ^[1]

--files-from=FILE
Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of files to transfer (as
read from the specified FILE or - for standard input). It also tweaks the 
default  behavior of rsync to make transferring just the  specified files and 
directories  easier:
The --relative (-R) option is implied, which preserves the path information that is specified for each item in the file (use --no-relative or --no-R if you want to turn that off).

The --dirs (-d) option is implied, which will create directories specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping them (use --no-dirs or --no-d if you want to turn that off).

The --archive (-a) option’s behavior does not imply --recursive (-r), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.

These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position of the --files-from option on the command-line has no bearing on how other options are parsed (e.g. -a works the same before or after --files-from, as does --no-R and all other options).

... in the man page there is more...

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows – FTP server via command-line

Linux – FTP download list of absolute paths

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