Perl in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Net::FTP

Net::FTP is used to transfer files from remote hosts. With Net::FTP, you can write simple FTP clients that transfer files from remote servers based on information passed on the command line or from hardcoded variables. Here is an example of a client that connects to a remote FTP server and gets a file from the server:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

use Net::FTP;

$hostname = 'remotehost.com';
$username = 'anonymous';
$password = '[e-mail]';

# Hardcode the directory and filename to get
$home = '/pub';
$filename = 'TESTFILE';

# Open the connection to the host
$ftp = Net::FTP->new($hostname);        # Construct object
$ftp->login($username, $password);      # Log in

$ftp->cwd($home),"\n";                  # Change directory
print $ftp->ls($home),"\n";        

# Now get the file and leave
$ftp->get($filename); 
$ftp->quit;

FTP clients have also been integrated with most World Wide Web browsers, using ftp:// in place of http://. When the URL points to a directory, the browser displays a listing of the directory, in which each filename is a link to that file. When the URL points directly to a file, the remote file is downloaded.

Here’s an example that uses Net::FTP to list files from a remote FTP server on a web page, with a link from each file to the URL of the file on the remote site:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w use Net::FTP; $hostname = 'remotehost.com'; # FTP host $username = 'anonymous'; # Username $password = '[e-mail]'; # Password $home = '/pub'; $ftp = Net::FTP->new($hostname); # Net::FTP constructor ...