Upload files with FTP using PowerShell

Question

I want to use PowerShell to transfer files with FTP to an anonymous FTP server. I would not use any extra packages. How?

There must be no risk that the script hangs or crashes.

Answer 1

I am not sure you can 100% bullet proof the script from not hanging or crashing, as there are things outside your control (what if the server loses power mid-upload?) - but this should provide a solid foundation for getting you started:

# create the FtpWebRequest and configure it
$ftp = [System.Net.FtpWebRequest]::Create("ftp://localhost/me.png")
$ftp = [System.Net.FtpWebRequest]$ftp
$ftp.Method = [System.Net.WebRequestMethods+Ftp]::UploadFile
$ftp.Credentials = new-object System.Net.NetworkCredential("anonymous","anonymous@localhost")
$ftp.UseBinary = $true
$ftp.UsePassive = $true
# read in the file to upload as a byte array
$content = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("C:\me.png")
$ftp.ContentLength = $content.Length
# get the request stream, and write the bytes into it
$rs = $ftp.GetRequestStream()
$rs.Write($content, 0, $content.Length)
# be sure to clean up after ourselves
$rs.Close()
$rs.Dispose()

Answer 2

I'm not gonna claim that this is more elegant than the highest-voted solution...but this is cool (well, at least in my mind LOL) in its own way:

$server = "ftp.lolcats.com"
$filelist = "file1.txt file2.txt"   

"open $server
user $user $password
binary  
cd $dir     
" +
($filelist.split(' ') | %{ "put ""$_""`n" }) | ftp -i -in

As you can see, it uses that dinky built-in windows FTP client. Much shorter and straightforward, too. Yes, I've actually used this and it works!

Answer 3

Here's my super cool version BECAUSE IT HAS A PROGRESS BAR :-)

Which is a completely useless feature, I know, but it still looks cool \m/ \m/

$webclient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $webclient -EventName "UploadProgressChanged" -Action { Write-Progress -Activity "Upload progress..." -Status "Uploading" -PercentComplete $EventArgs.ProgressPercentage } > $null

$File = "filename.zip"
$ftp = "ftp://user:password@server/filename.zip"
$uri = New-Object System.Uri($ftp)
try{
    $webclient.UploadFileAsync($uri, $File)
}
catch  [Net.WebException]
{
    Write-Host $_.Exception.ToString() -foregroundcolor red
}
while ($webclient.IsBusy) { continue }

PS. Helps a lot, when I'm wondering "did it stop working, or is it just my slow ASDL connection?"

Answer 4

I recently wrote for powershell several functions for communicating with FTP, see https://github.com/AstralisSomnium/PowerShell-No-Library-Just-Functions/blob/master/FTPModule.ps1. The second function below, you can send a whole local folder to FTP. In the module are even functions for removing / adding / reading folders and files recursively.

#Add-FtpFile -ftpFilePath "ftp://myHost.com/folder/somewhere/uploaded.txt" -localFile "C:\temp\file.txt" -userName "User" -password "pw"
function Add-FtpFile($ftpFilePath, $localFile, $username, $password) {
    $ftprequest = New-FtpRequest -sourceUri $ftpFilePath -method ([System.Net.WebRequestMethods+Ftp]::UploadFile) -username $username -password $password
    Write-Host "$($ftpRequest.Method) for '$($ftpRequest.RequestUri)' complete'"
    $content = $content = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes($localFile)
    $ftprequest.ContentLength = $content.Length
    $requestStream = $ftprequest.GetRequestStream()
    $requestStream.Write($content, 0, $content.Length)
    $requestStream.Close()
    $requestStream.Dispose()
}

#Add-FtpFolderWithFiles -sourceFolder "C:\temp\" -destinationFolder "ftp://myHost.com/folder/somewhere/" -userName "User" -password "pw"
function Add-FtpFolderWithFiles($sourceFolder, $destinationFolder, $userName, $password) {
    Add-FtpDirectory $destinationFolder $userName $password
    $files = Get-ChildItem $sourceFolder -File
    foreach($file in $files) {
        $uploadUrl ="$destinationFolder/$($file.Name)"
        Add-FtpFile -ftpFilePath $uploadUrl -localFile $file.FullName -username $userName -password $password
    }
}

#Add-FtpFolderWithFilesRecursive -sourceFolder "C:\temp\" -destinationFolder "ftp://myHost.com/folder/" -userName "User" -password "pw"
function Add-FtpFolderWithFilesRecursive($sourceFolder, $destinationFolder, $userName, $password) {
    Add-FtpFolderWithFiles -sourceFolder $sourceFolder -destinationFolder $destinationFolder -userName $userName -password $password
    $subDirectories = Get-ChildItem $sourceFolder -Directory
    $fromUri = new-object System.Uri($sourceFolder)
    foreach($subDirectory in $subDirectories) {
        $toUri  = new-object System.Uri($subDirectory.FullName)
        $relativeUrl = $fromUri.MakeRelativeUri($toUri)
        $relativePath = [System.Uri]::UnescapeDataString($relativeUrl.ToString())
        $lastFolder = $relativePath.Substring($relativePath.LastIndexOf("/")+1)
        Add-FtpFolderWithFilesRecursive -sourceFolder $subDirectory.FullName -destinationFolder "$destinationFolder/$lastFolder" -userName $userName -password $password
}

}

Answer 5

Goyuix's solution works great, but as presented it gives me this error: "The requested FTP command is not supported when using HTTP proxy."

Adding this line after $ftp.UsePassive = $true fixed the problem for me:

$ftp.Proxy = $null;

Answer 6

The most trivial way to upload a binary file to an FTP server using PowerShell is using WebClient.UploadFile:

$client = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$client.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("username", "password")
$client.UploadFile("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip", "C:\local\path\file.zip")

If you need a greater control, that WebClient does not offer (like TLS/SSL encryption, etc), use FtpWebRequest. Easy way is to just copy a FileStream to FTP stream using Stream.CopyTo:

$request = [Net.WebRequest]::Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip")
$request.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("username", "password")
$request.Method = [System.Net.WebRequestMethods+Ftp]::UploadFile 

$fileStream = [System.IO.File]::OpenRead("C:\local\path\file.zip")
$ftpStream = $request.GetRequestStream()

$fileStream.CopyTo($ftpStream)

$ftpStream.Dispose()
$fileStream.Dispose()

If you need to monitor an upload progress, you have to copy the contents by chunks yourself:

$request = [Net.WebRequest]::Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip")
$request.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("username", "password")
$request.Method = [System.Net.WebRequestMethods+Ftp]::UploadFile 

$fileStream = [System.IO.File]::OpenRead("C:\local\path\file.zip")
$ftpStream = $request.GetRequestStream()

$buffer = New-Object Byte[] 10240
while (($read = $fileStream.Read($buffer, 0, $buffer.Length)) -gt 0)
{
    $ftpStream.Write($buffer, 0, $read)
    $pct = ($fileStream.Position / $fileStream.Length)
    Write-Progress `
        -Activity "Uploading" -Status ("{0:P0} complete:" -f $pct) `
        -PercentComplete ($pct * 100)
}

$fileStream.CopyTo($ftpStream)

$ftpStream.Dispose()
$fileStream.Dispose()