ftp-upload - batch transfer local files to an FTP server

ftp-upload [any-switch]... {[repeatable-switch]... file...}...

ftp-upload is used to send local files to an FTP server. It isn't interactive, it's meant to be used from scripts. It is disciplined about its exit value and it doesn't output informational messages by default.

There are two kinds of switches. Initial switches have to appear before any filenames, they affect the session as a whole. Repeatable switches can appear interspersed with the file names, they affect the transfer of the files which appear after them on the command line.

These have to be used before any file names listed on the command line.

--debug

Turn debugging on.

--help

Show the usage message and die.

--ignore-quit-failure

Don't complain or set a failure exit code just because the QUIT command fails. This can be necessary because some servers, in blatant disregard of RFC 959, close the command channel when you send them an ABOR command.

-v, --verbose

Print informational messages to stdout.

--version

Show the version number and exit.

These also have to be used before any file names listed on the command line. They specify the information used to set up the FTP connection.

--account account

This specifies the account to be used when logging into the remote system. This is distinct from the user name used to log in. Few systems need this. There is no default.

-h, --host host

Specify the host to which to connect. There is no default, you have to specify this switch.

--passive

Force the use of passive (PASV) transfers. Passive transfers are required with some firewall configurations, but if you have such you'd do better to configure Net::FTP so that it knows when to use them (see Net::Config). If you need to use passive transfers with certain (broken) servers, however, this switch is your best bet. Alternatively, you can set CW$FTP_PASSIVE to 1 in the environment (see Net::FTP).

--password pw

This gives the password which will be used to login. The default is your email address. Note that you should not specify a real (secret) password this way, as on most systems anybody on the machine can see the arguments you pass to your commands. Use one of other password-setting switches instead.

-s, --password-stdin

This tells ftp-upload to read the password from standard input. No prompt will be printed, and a single line will be read. Most people will use this switch to specify the password. Eg,

    echo 3x9sjJJh | ftp-upload -sh $host -u $user $file

Using echo this way is safe where the --password switch isn't if the echo command is built in to the shell.

--password-fd fd

This is like --password-stdin except that it reads the password from the file descriptor numbered fd.

    ftp-upload -h $host -u $user --password-fd=3 3<$pw_file $file

-u, --user user

Specify the user name to use when logging in. The default is CWanonymous.

These switches can be used anywhere on the command line (except after the last file name). They affect the transfer of files listed after them.

--as remote-name

Normally a file is transferred using the same name it has locally. If you use this switch the next file transferred will be called remote-name on the other host instead.

    ftp-upload --host $host --as index.htm index.html

-a, --ascii

Perform transfers in ASCII mode.

-b, --binary

Perform transfers in binary mode. This is the default.

-d, --dir dir

Change directory to dir on the FTP server before continuing. You can use this multiple times between files, ftp-upload will chdir once for each time you specify it. Using CW.. as the dir will cause an FTP CWCDUP to be done rather than a CWCWD.

--full-path

Normally uploaded files go into the current directory on the remote host, even when the local file name given contains slashes. Eg, if you say

    ftp-upload -h $host /etc/motd

ftp-upload will upload the file as motd, not /etc/motd. This differs from how the standard ftp program works, and it also differs with how ftp-upload worked before version 1.3. If you specify --full-path, you'll get the other behavior. A request to upload dir/file will tell the server to store dir/file rather than file. When you use --as the --full-path setting doesn't matter. --full-path only tells the program what name to use when it's choosing the name.

--no-full-path

Disable --full-path. This is the default.

-l, --ls

Try to get a remote directory listing of files after transferring them. I say try because there's no guaranteed way to do this with the FTP protocol. The command I run is CWLIST CIfileCW. This will generally work if file doesn't contain any special characters.

-L, --no-ls

Disable the --ls behavior.

--tmp-none

Transfer files directly, don't do anything special to try to ensure that they don't appear under their real names on the remote machine until the transfer is finished. Each file is transferred with a single simple CWSTOR. This is the default.

--tmp-samedir

Transfer files to the remote machine using a temporary name, then rename them when the transfer finishes. This won't work if the remote server doesn't give a recognizable response to the CWSTOU command. If the server's response to CWSTOU isn't recognized by Net::FTP but is reasonable, Graham Barr might be willing to change Net::FTP to recognize it. If you like you can send the CW--debug output to me and I'll coordinate such requests.

--tmp-dir dir

Transfer files to dir on the remote host, then rename them when the transfer is complete. This is safer than --tmp-samedir because it doesn't use CWSTOU and so it works with more servers.

    ftp-upload -h $host --tmp-dir incoming $file

Roderick Schertler <roderick@argon.org>