How to automate ftp in perl

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

My situations is I cannot use NET::ftp. So I need to have a way to automate ftp. I know how to do it in ksh:

#!/usr/bin/ksh
ftp -i -v -n $host_name <<_FTP >> $log_file 2>&1
user $user_name

lcd $local_dir
cd $remote_dir
put $file_name
bye
_FTP

But how can I do it in perl?

Note: No password required for ftp.

And if I want to run this ksh script in perl, using system() or backticks, I got prompt for passwd. Any ideas?

Thanks.

2

think this may help
Using Perl Expect To Automate SFTP Access | Parth Patil's Blog

3

Sadly that requires Expect, which he probably also cannot use. Egyfan, Are you sure you cannot install Net::FTP into your local account?

Anyway, what you have to do is to create a pair of pipes, spawn the FTP process using fork(), then pains-takingly read/write to the pipes. You have to handle anything unexpected, which is usually difficult at best. Check out the perlipc man page.

4

There is not way in ksh or perl that allow me to somehow treat the empty line as the password field?

5

Ohh, I think now I know what you are trying to do. There's a file you can use ".netrc" which will allow you to log into a site via FTP without specifying username and password. However, you still need to specify the commands after that. Here's an example of a .netrc file:

machine remote.host.edu login foobar password SuperSecret73

You'll need to make sure the .netrc has permissions 600 (use chmod).

6

You could write the ftp code out to a file and then use the system command to execute that file. Here is a script that I use:

#!/usr/bin/perl  
# #########################################################################
# # This script was written to search directories read      ##
# # from the file pwdirs and search them for monthly reports to be sent  ##
# # to .  You must provide the beginning day, ending day and     ##
# # month on the command line.  The beginning day, ending day and month  ## 
# # must be two digits ex: 01,02....31.  This script will pull files for ## 
# # days and month specified. The command to run this is:                ##
# # perl pwcopy.pl BEGINNING_DAY ENDING_DAY MONTH .  ex:                 ##
# #        perl pwcopy.pl 01 03 09                                       ##
# # The above command would copy reports from the 1st through 3rd days   ##
# # for the month of September.                                          ##
# #########################################################################
# # These are passed from the command line
$begin=$ARGV[0];                      #Get the begin day of month
$end=$ARGV[1];                        #Get the end day of the month
$month=$ARGV[2];                       #Get the month of the reports to copy 
# Get the current date
($csec,$cmin,$chour,$cmday,$cmon,$cyear,$cwday,$cyday,$cisdst) = localtime(time);
$cyear=$cyear+1900;                   # get the correct year
$cmon=$cmon+1;                        # Get the correct month
if($cmon<10) {$cmon="0$cmon";}
if($cmday<10) {$cmday="0$cmday";}
if($chour<10) {$chour="0$chour";}
if($cmin<10) {$cmin="0$cmin";}
if($csec<10) {$csec="0$csec";}
# # Open file to write ftp script to
open(ftpsc, '>/usr/local/bin/pwpmftp') or die "Can't open ftp script file";
print ftpsc "# This script is created by the script pwcopy.pl\n";
print ftpsc "ftp -in 00.00.00.00 <<EOF\n";
print ftpsc "user userid password\n";
print ftpsc "type ascii\n";
# # Open the file containing the directories to be searched
open(DIRFIL, 'pwdirs') or die "Can't open directory file pwdirs\n";
while (<DIRFIL>) {
      $dir = $_ ;
      chomp($dir);
# # Open the directory to be read for files
      opendir(CURR, $dir) or die "Can't open directory: $dir $!\n";
      while (defined($file = readdir(CURR))) {
      if ($file =~ m/ARM|AMI|AMR[^AMRA|^AMRB|^AMRD]/) {
          $mtime = (stat("$dir/$file"))[9]; # Get the last accessed date
# # Create a readable date to compare to the current date from above
          ($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime($mtime);
          $mon=$mon+1;
          $year=$year+1900;
          if($mon<10) {$mon="0$mon";}
          if($mday<10) {$mday="0$mday";}
          if(($mday ge $begin && $mday le $end) && $mon eq $month && $year eq $cyear) {
             $count=$count+1;
             $fdate_time="$cmon$cmday$cyear$chour$cmin$csec$count";
             $new_file=substr($file,4,4);
             $odir=substr($dir,10,3);
             print ftpsc "put $dir/$file /$odir/$odir$new_file$fdate_time.txt\n";
            }
         }
      }
}
print ftpsc "quit\n";
print ftpsc "EOF\n";
close ftpsc;
system("./pwpmftp");

I am sure someone more experienced than I could write a more efficient perl script, but it works for me. Good Luck.

7

Thank you all. But the things is the "open" command and .netrc file still won't work for me. I tried both. In both cases, the program prompt me for password. I put "" (double quot) in open and .netrc for passwd.

So I might have to use NET::Ftp then.