Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1998 14:15:02 -0800 (PST) From: Ken McGlothlen <mcglk@serv.net> To: Steven P Yang <spyang@MIT.EDU> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: how do I automate ftp? (clarification) Message-ID: <199811022215.OAA08215@ralf.serv.net> References: <199811021917.OAA13614@scrubbing-bubbles.mit.edu>
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Steven P Yang (spyang@mit.edu) used the evil N-word when he wrote:
| Hi, about my last e-mail, a specific goal I have in mind for an automated ftp
| would be the ability to schedule a file transfer at a specific time to a
| remote ftp server. So, this implies that the ftp script would automatically
| supply the username and password. I can do this on NT, but don't know if I
| can do this on FreeBSD.
|
| Is this possible?
Of *course* it's possible, Steven. In a wide variety of ways.
Something that would provide a lot of flexibility down the road (if this
application got more complicated), but starts off pretty simple, would be the
following Perl script:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use Net::FTP;
$serv = "bargle.fleen.org";
$user = "wibble";
$pass = "narfpoit";
$ftp = Net::FTP->new( $serv ); # Create the FTP object
$ftp->login( $user, $pass ); # Log in.
$ftp->binary(); # Change to binary mode.
$ftp->cwd( "/pub/wibble" ); # Change directories.
$ftp->mkdir( "floompf" ); # Create a directory.
$ftp->put( "farble.txt" ); # Put a file.
$ftp->get( "elbraf.txt" ); # Get a file.
$ftp->quit(); # Ends the session.
You could do something similar in tcl or even sh, but I like Perl.
Once your script works, you can schedule it easily enough using the crontab
facility. crontab allows you to edit a file called (oddly enough) crontab that
looks something like this:
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (/tmp/crontab.9722 installed on Sun Oct 18 22:31:43 1998)
# (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 1.6 1996/08/05 00:50:02 pst Exp $)
SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/etc:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin
#
#mn hr dy mo wd command
* */2 * * * /home/wibble/bin/scriptname
Crontab, like Perl, uses "#" as a comment-to-end-of-line indicator. This
crontab defines two environment variables, and then sets up the script you just
wrote (here called /home/wibble/bin/scriptname) to run once every two hours.
Note that if you wanted the script to run at midnight on the 1st and the 15th
of every month, that line would read:
0 0 1,15 * * /home/wibble/bin/scriptname
If you take a look at the crontab manpage ("man 5 crontab"), you could find out
more about this.
I daresay that this winds up being a *lot* more flexible than NT's version.
Good luck. If you have any questions, let me know.
---Ken
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