ftp

R. Craig Collins > Web Page Design > ftp

ftp © R. Craig Collins, 2005/6

FTP is aging, but still an irreplaceable tool. The reason it is studied for this class is no other tool set can reliably upload your web pages to a password protected server.

FTP, though, is not meant to manipulate the remote account. It is meant only to quickly access a remote resource, move files, and some basic housekeeping, such as creating folders or renaming files. Period. Not for the creation of new data, not for editing, and not for running executables; simply to support moving files from machine to machine.

Quick note on downloading with ftp. Many large files you click on to download from sites actually are delivered via ftp operating within your browser, since ftp is more robust at moving any files, either as an upload or a download.

(If you were to use dedicated ftp software instead of your browser to download from a server that allows guest access, you would almost immediately be challenged for a password. Don't fear though, one unique feature of FTP is the standard arrived upon for anonymous guest account access.

The username is the unwieldy word anonymous (hence, the name anonymous ftp), and the password is the user's e-mail! Anonymous ftp is only for downloading, for uploading you must have an account controlled by a real username and real password.)

The FTP engines available for our use are the Windows Internet Explorer, Filezilla, the Windows FTP engine (Run ftp), or a free to try WS_FTP. (to Details of using Internet Explorer or Filezilla, etc.)

Internet Explorer, Filezilla, and WS_FTP hides the command structure. With IE, it is just like browsing another folder (to Details of using Internet Explorer.) on your computer. Filezilla and WS-FTP uses two panes representing the two computers involved, with buttons that are labeled with the standard navigation commands (Details of using Filezilla)

While all these tools have the ability to copy files, they are often limited in the fact that they can only give the user a list available files; there often is no preview or viewing mechanism for the new, complex audio, graphic or video formats. The final caveat for using FTP is the limited search engine support for finding files to copy.

Optional: ftp command line (command line use of ftp is NOT require, see ftp info web page.)
Any command line ftp engine requires knowledge of FTP commands. So, the Windows ftp software is the tool of choice for those who are comfortable with command lines, and the control offered.

ftp commands


ftp> help
Commands may be abbreviated.  Commands are:

!               delete          literal         prompt          send
?               debug           ls              put             status
append          dir             mdelete         pwd             trace
ascii           disconnect      mdir            quit            type
bell            get             mget            quote           user
binary          glob            mkdir           recv            verbose
bye             hash            mls             remotehelp
cd              help            mput            rename
close           lcd             open            rmdir
ftp>

Sample command line ftp session

open studentweb.templejc.edu
(fill in username and password)

mkdir pages
(makes a directory named pages)

mkdir images
(makes a directory named images)

lcd O:\lab9
(sets the local machine to your O:\lab9)

put index.html index.html
(uploads/copies your default document to the current (root) directory of your account on studentweb)

cd pages
(changes the directory to the pages directory of your account on studentweb)

lcd pages
(sets the local machine to your O:\lab9\pages)

mput *.htm *.htm
(copies any file whose name ends with .htm)

cd ..
cd images
(changes the directory to the images directory of your account on studentweb)

lcd ..
lcd images
(sets the local machine to your O:\lab9\images)

binary
(set the upload to non-text files. You need to know the difference between ASCII and Binary transfers. ASCII is a file you can read with notepad (such as web pages). Everything else is Binary. The default is ASCII, you only change it when uploading images, etc.)

mput *.jpg *.jpg
(copies any file whose name ends with .jpg)

mput *.gif *.gif
(copies any file whose name ends with .jpg)

bye
(ends the session)