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


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 ser­
               vice 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.

       -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.

               loading 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  down­
               loaded 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 pro­
               cessed.

               For example, if you wanted to do  background  pro­
               cessing  of  three  files  all  on the same remote
               server, it is more polite to use just  one  ncftp­
               batch  process  to  process the three jobs sequen­
               tially, rather than having three  ncftpbatch  pro­
               cesses 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 trans­
               ferred.

       -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 block­
               size and record format information.

               When using those options, you can  use  a  newline
               character  to  delimit multiple commands.  For the
               -X option, you can use the  cookie  %s  to  expand



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  exam­
       ple,  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  informa­
       tion  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  diag­
       nose  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.


           $   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.


       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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