PHP Cookbook

17.6. Getting and Putting Files with FTP

Problem

You want to transfer files using FTP.

Solution

Use PHP’s built-in FTP functions:

$c = ftp_connect('ftp.example.com')     or die("Can't connect");
ftp_login($c, $username, $password)     or die("Can't login");
ftp_put($c, $remote, $local, FTP_ASCII) or die("Can't transfer");
ftp_close($c);                          or die("Can't close");

You can also use the cURL extension:

$c = curl_init("ftp://$username:$[e-mail]/$remote");
// $local is the location to store file on local machine
$fh = fopen($local, 'w') or die($php_errormsg); 
curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_FILE, $fh);
curl_exec($c);
curl_close($c);

Discussion

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is a method of exchanging files between one computer and another. Unlike with HTTP servers, it’s easy to set up an FTP server to both send and receive files.

Using the built-in FTP functions doesn’t require additional libraries, but you must specifically enable them with --enable-ftp . Because these functions are specialized to FTP, they’re easy to use when transferring files.

All FTP transactions begin with establishing a connection from your computer, the local client, to another computer, the remote server:

$c = ftp_connect('ftp.example.com')     or die("Can't connect");

Once connected, you need to send your username and password; the remote server can then authenticate you and allow you to enter:

ftp_login($c, $username, $password)     or die("Can't login");

Some FTP servers support a feature known as anonymous FTP. ...