How to ftp with a batch file?

Question

I want a batch file to ftp to a server, read out a text file, and disconnect. The server requires a user and password. I tried

@echo off
pause
@ftp example.com
username
password
pause

but it never logged on. How can I get this to work?

Answer 1

Here's what I use. In my case, certain ftp servers (pure-ftpd for one) will always prompt for the username even with the -i parameter, and catch the "user username" command as the interactive password. What I do it enter a few NOOP (no operation) commands until the ftp server times out, and then login:

open ftp.example.com 
noop
noop
noop
noop
noop
noop
noop
noop
user username password
...
quit

Answer 2

I have written a script as *.sh file

#!/bin/sh
set -x
FTPHOST='host-address'
FTPUSER='ftp-username'
FTPPASSWD='yourPass'

ftp -n -v $FTPHOST << EOT
ascii
user $FTPUSER $FTPPASSWD
prompt
##Your commands
bye
EOT

Works fine for me

Answer 3

The answer by 0x90h helped a lot...

I saved this file as u.ftp:

open 10.155.8.215 
user
password
lcd /D "G:\Subfolder\"
cd  folder/
binary
mget file.csv
disconnect
quit

I then ran this command:

ftp -i -s:u.ftp

And it worked!!!

Thanks a lot man :)

Answer 4

You can use PowerShell as well; this is what I did. As I needed to download a file based on a pattern I dynamically created a command file and then let ftp do the rest.

I used basic PowerShell commands. I did not need to download any additional components. I first checked if the requisite number of files existed. If they I invoked the FTP the second time with an Mget. I run this from a Windows Server 2008 connecting to a Windows XP remote server.

function make_ftp_command_file($p_file_pattern,$mget_flag)
{
    # This function dynamically prepares the FTP file.
    # The file needs to be prepared daily because the
    # pattern changes daily.
    # PowerShell default encoding is Unicode.
    # Unicode command files are not compatible with FTP so
    # we need to make sure we create an ASCII file.

    write-output "USER" | out-file -filepath C:\fc.txt -encoding ASCII
    write-output "ftpusername" | out-file -filepath C:\fc.txt -encoding ASCII -Append
    write-output "password" | out-file -filepath C:\fc.txt -encoding ASCII -Append
    write-output "ASCII" | out-file -filepath C:\fc.txt -encoding ASCII -Append
    If ($mget_flag -eq "Y")
    {
        write-output "prompt" | out-file -filepath C:\fc.txt -encoding ASCII -Append
        write-output "mget $p_file_pattern" | out-file -filepath C:\fc.txt -encoding ASCII -Append
    }
    else
    {
        write-output "ls $p_file_pattern" | out-file -filepath C:\fc.txt -encoding ASCII -Append
    }

    write-output quit | out-file -filepath C:\fc.txt -encoding ASCII -Append
}


###########################  Init Section ###############################
$yesterday = (get-date).AddDays(-1)
$yesterday_fmt = date $yesterday -format "yyyyMMdd"
$file_pattern = "BRAE_GE_*" + $yesterday_fmt + "*.csv"
$file_log = $yesterday_fmt + ".log"

echo  $file_pattern
echo  $file_log


############################## Main Section ############################
# Change location to folder where the files need to be downloaded
cd c:\remotefiles

# Dynamically create the FTP Command to get a list of files from
# the remote servers
echo "Call function that creates a FTP Command "
make_ftp_command_file $file_pattern N


#echo "Connect to remote site via FTP"
# Connect to Remote Server and get file listing
ftp -n -v -s:C:\Clover\scripts\fc.txt 10.129.120.31 > C:\logs\$file_log

$matches=select-string -pattern "BRAE_GE_[A-Z][A-Z]*" C:\logs\$file_log

# Check if the required number of Files available for download
if ($matches.count -eq 36)
{
    # Create the FTP command file

    # This time the command file has an mget rather than an ls
    make_ftp_command_file $file_pattern Y

    # Change directory if not done so
    cd c:\remotefiles

    # Invoke ftp with newly created command file
    ftp -n -v -s:C:\Clover\scripts\fc.txt 10.129.120.31 > C:\logs\$file_log
}
else
{
    echo "The full set of files is not available"
}

Answer 5

You need to write the ftp commands in a text file and give it as a parameter for the ftp command like this:

ftp -s:filename

More info here: http://www.nsftools.com/tips/MSFTP.htm

I am not sure though if it would work with username and password prompt.

Answer 6

This is an old post however, one alternative is to use the command options:

ftp -n -s:ftpcmd.txt

the -n will suppress the initial login and then the file contents would be: (replace the 127.0.0.1 with your FTP site url)

open 127.0.0.1
user myFTPuser myftppassword
other commands here...

This avoids the user/password on separate lines