Re: [tlug] ftp client for linux

[Andrew Errington <a.errington@example.com>]

For GUI ftp I use Konquerer.  Just type ftp:// in the address bar and it will 
act as an ftp client, but present the (remote) ftp filestore just like any 
local filesystem.

For scripted ftp I used, er, 'ftp'.  You can control 'ftp' by redirecting a 
file to it.

For example, my file auto_ftp:

open ftpserver.domain.com
user myusername mypassword
cd graphs
put day.png
quit


And a snippet from my daily cron job which uses it (it collects data over the 
day and makes a graph.  The graph is then uploaded to the website using ftp):

#echo
#echo "Uploading graph..."

# Send the graph to the server
ftp -n < /home/user/auto_ftp

#echo "Done!"


The disadvantage, if there is one, is that the ftp password is stored in 
plaintext in a file.  You can use Linux file permissions to make it locally 
secure, but it goes out as plaintext on the wire anyway.  You can also use 
a .netrc file as described in the man page (it's still plaintext).

I am using Mepis on my laptop, which is derived from Ubuntu.

% man ftp
FTP(1)                    BSD General Commands Manual                   FTP(1)

NAME
     ftp - Internet file transfer program

SYNOPSIS
     ftp [-pinegvd] [host [port]]
     pftp [-inegvd] [host [port]]
.
.
.

Have fun!

HTH,

Andrew

On Thursday 25 October 2007 22:57, Brian Chandler wrote:
> First the meta-question: There has to be a better way. I spent a looong
> time googlehunting to try to find where to find the best way to find out
> how to get an ftp client running. The next thing is a programming
> editor: how should I _start_ this task?
>
> Anyway, the question: I found gftp, which seems to be the most commonly
> mentioned ftp client, installed it in a flash, and tried using it.
>
> Basically, it doesn't (in any reasonable sense) work. Yes, I have made
> several successful transfers, but in between it's crashed lots of times
> (at least I found out about xkill), lots of things just don't work (you
> hunt through the menus, as is the way with modern computing, find a
> button called "Stop transfer", but as far as I could tell it had no
> effect at all).
>
> Annoyances:
>
> I'm trying to use SSH, because I understand that is secure where the
> basic FTP protocol isn't, and gftp has an option for SSH2, but I have to
> reselect it every time I connect (which was a lot of times).
>
> File dates are in the Completely Insane Jumble format, with the day of
> the week at one end and the year at the other, and lots of stuff of
> varying significance in random order in between.
>
> Summary:
>
> I'm not very impressed. I notice some people said "It works OK for me",
> others said "It crashes all the time", so I suppose I'm the wrong sort
> of people. I do like the fairly uncomplicated layout - I simply need to
> be able to transfer blocks of files, mostly Up, and I'm not looking for
> fancy terminal emulators or any of the other stuff that some "FTP
> clients" seem to boast.
>
> I'm currently using xubuntu, but I will probably try gnome next <g>.
>
> Any suggestions?