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ncftpget
!!!ncftpget
NAME
SYNOPSIS
OPTIONS
DESCRIPTION
DIAGNOSTICS
AUTHOR
SEE ALSO
----
!!NAME


ncftpget - Internet file transfer program for scripts
!!SYNOPSIS


__ncftpget__ [[''options''] ''remote-host
local-directory remote-files...''


__ncftpget__ -f login.cfg [[''options'']
''local-directory remote-files...''


__ncftpget__ [[''options'']
''ftp://url.style.host/path/name''


__ncftpget__ -c [[''options''] ''remote-host
remote-file'' ''


__ncftpget__ -c [[''options'']
''ftp://url.style.host/path/name''
''
!!OPTIONS


__Command line flags:__


__-u__ ''XX''


Use username ''XX'' instead of anonymous.


__-p__ ''XX''


Use password ''XX'' with the username.


__-P__ ''XX''


Use port number ''XX'' instead of the default FTP service
port (21).


__-j__ ''XX''


Use account ''XX'' in supplement to the username and
password (deprecated).


__-d__ ''XX''


Use the file ''XX'' for debug logging.


__-a__


Use ASCII transfer type instead of binary.


__-t__ ''XX''


Timeout after ''XX'' seconds.


__-v__/__-V__


Do (do not) use progress meters. The default is to use
progress meters if the output stream is a TTY.


__-f__ ''XX''


Read the file ''XX'' for host, user, and password
information.


__-c__


Send output to standard out, rather than writing to a local
file.


__-A__


Append to local files, instead of overwriting
them.


__-z__/__-Z__


Do (do not) try to resume transfers. The default is to try
to resume (-z).


__-E__


Use regular (PORT) data connections.


__-F__


Use passive (PASV) data connections. The default is to use
passive, but to fallback to regular if the passive
connection fails or times out.


__-DD__


Delete remote file after successfully downloading
it.


__-R__


Recursive mode; copy whole directory trees.


__-T__


Do not use automatic on-the-fly TAR mode for downloading
whole directory trees. ''ncftpget'' uses TAR whenever
possible since this usually preserves symbolic links and
file permissions. TAR mode can also result in faster
transfers for directories containing many small files, since
a single data connection can be used rather than an FTP data
connection for each small file. The downside to using TAR is
that it forces downloading of the whole directory, even if
you had previously downloaded a portion of it earlier, so
you may want to use this option if you want to resume
downloading of a directory.


__-r__ ''XX''


Redial a maximum of ''XX'' times until connected to the
remote FTP server.


__-b__


Run in background (by submitting a batch job and then
spawning ''ncftpbatch'').


__-bb__


Similar to __-b__ option, but only submits the batch job.
You will need to run ''ncftpbatch'' for the batch job to
be processed. This is useful if you already have a
''ncftpbatch'' process running, or wish to have better
control of when batch jobs are processed.


For example, if you wanted to do background processing of
three files all on the same remote server, it is more polite
to use just one ''ncftpbatch'' process to process the
three jobs sequentially, rather than having three
''ncftpbatch'' processes open three simultaneous FTP
sessions to the same server.


__-B__ ''XX''


Try setting the TCP/IP socket buffer size to ''XX''
bytes.


__-W__ ''XX''


Send raw FTP command ''XX'' after logging
in.


__-X__ ''XX''


Send raw FTP command ''XX'' after each file
transferred.


__-Y__ ''XX''


Send raw FTP command ''XX'' before logging
out.


The __-W__, __-X__, and __-Y__ options are useful
for advanced users who need to tweak behavior on some
servers. For example, users accessing mainframes might need
to send some special SITE commands to set blocksize and
record format information.


For these options, you can use them multiple times each if
you need to send multiple commands. For the __-X__
option, you can use the cookie __%s__ to expand into the
name of the file that was transferred.
!!DESCRIPTION


The purpose of ''ncftpget'' is to do file transfers from
the command-line without entering an interactive shell. This
lets you write shell scripts or other unattended processes
that can do FTP. It is also useful for advanced users who
want to retrieve files from the shell command line without
entering an interactive FTP program such as
''ncftp''.


One particularly useful feature of this program is that you
can give it a ''uniform resource locator'' as the only
argument and the program will download that file. You can
then copy and paste from your web browser or newsreader and
use that URL. Example:


$ cd /tmp
$ ncftpget ftp://ftp.ncftp.com/pub/ncftp/ncftp.tar.Z
$ zcat ncftp.tar.Z | tar xf -


By default the program tries to open the remote host and
login anonymously, but you can specify a username and
password information. The __-u__ option is used to
specify the username to login as, and the __-p__ option
is used to specify the password. If you are running the
program from the shell, you may omit the __-p__ option
and the program will prompt you for the
password.


Using the __-u__ and __-p__ options are not
recommended, because your account information is exposed to
anyone who can see your shell script or your process
information. For example, someone using the ''ps''
program could see your password while the program
runs.


You may use the __-f__ option instead to specify a file
with the account information. However, this is still not
secure because anyone who has read access to the information
file can see the account information. Nevertheless, if you
choose to use the __-f__ option the file should look
something like this:


host sphygmomanometer.ncftp.com
user gleason
pass mypasswd


Don't forget to change the permissions on this file so no
one else can read them.


The __-d__ option is very useful when you are trying to
diagnose why a file transfer is failing. It prints out the
entire FTP conversation to the file you specify, so you can
get an idea of what went wrong. If you specify the special
name ''stdout'' as the name of the debugging output file,
the output will instead print to the screen.
Example:


$ ncftpget -d stdout bowser.nintendo.co.jp . /pub/README
220: FTP server ready.
Connected to bowser.nintendo.co.jp.
Cmd: USER anonymous
331: Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as
password.
Cmd: PASS xxxxxxxx
230: Welcome!
Logged in to bowser.nintendo.co.jp as anonymous.
Cmd: TYPE I
200: Type set to I.
Cmd: PORT 192,168,9,37,6,76
200: PORT command successful.
Cmd: RETR /pub/README
550: /pub/README: File in use.
Cmd: QUIT
221: Goodbye.


Using ASCII mode is helpful when the text format of your
host differs from that of the remote host. For example, if
you are retrieving a .TXT file from a Windows-based host to
a UNIX system, you could use the __-a__ flag which would
use ASCII transfer mode so that the file created on the UNIX
system would be in the UNIX text format instead of the
MS-DOS text format.


You can retrieve an entire directory tree of files by using
the __-R__ flag. However, this will work only if the
remote FTP server is a UNIX server, or emulates UNIX's list
output. Example:


$ ncftpget -R ftp.ncftp.com /tmp /pub/ncftp


This would create a /tmp/ncftp hierarchy.
!!DIAGNOSTICS


''ncftpget'' returns the following exit
values:


0


Success.


1


Could not connect to remote host.


2


Could not connect to remote host - timed out.


3


Transfer failed.


4


Transfer failed - timed out.


5


Directory change failed.


6


Directory change failed - timed out.


7


Malformed URL.


8


Usage error.


9


Error in login configuration file.


10


Library initialization failed.


11


Session initialization failed.
!!AUTHOR


Mike Gleason, NcFTP Software
(mgleason@ncftp.com).
!!SEE ALSO


ncftpput(1), ncftp(1), ftp(1),
rcp(1), tftp(1).


''LibNcFTP''
(http://www.ncftp.com/libncftp/).
----
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Last edited on Tuesday, June 4, 2002 12:22:24 am by "perry"
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