Imagine you have to be up to date on remote files which change frequently. You will have to perform the same file transfer quite often. A shell script similar to the following would be very useful:
# getfiles: get a few files regularly from DXCERN#
# customize the next lines:
user=XY12 # replace this with your id
locpath=... # specifies where to put
rempath=... # from where to get
#
echo " "
echo "Opening FTP connection to DXCERN"
echo "for user" $user
echo " "
ftp -n dxcern <<EOF # invoke FTP with next lines as input
user $user # specifies remote user id
lcd $locpath # set the local path
cd $rempath # set the remote path
get file1 # with EBCDIC/ASCII conversion
binary # change transfer mode
get file2 # without conversion
quit # terminate FTP
EOF # terminate input to FTP
You will be prompted for your password on the remote host.
``Anonymous'' ftp means that one can login to the remote system using the userid of ``anonymous'' and password of either ``guest'' or more usually your own userid and internet address. Ftp is like telnet in that the ``open'' command and access to the remote host is similar, except that you can only access files in the subdirectory tree belonging the remote anonymous ftp account.
A typical session might go as follows:
ftp any.host.i.knowlogin: anonymous
guest login ok...send user id as password
ftp> ls -al ( list all files)
ftp> cd pub ( change to the ``pub'' directory)
ftp> get my.file
transfer complete
ftp> quit
The standard transfer protocol is ASCII. This is suitable for text. Use the command binary if transferring program or image files. (Note: on VAX-VMS computers use IMAGE).
Large files are usually ``tared'' and compressed. You have to use binary FTP to get such files. The file extension shows how to uncompress it:
.tar tar -xvf myfile.tar.Z uncompress myfile.Z
.tar.Z uncompress myfile.tar.Z
tar -xvf myfile.tar