Special Edition Using Linux®, Sixth Edition

FTP Client

Linux distributions come with a standard command-line FTP client. It's not the fanciest utility, but it gets the job done. Many other FTP clients come with Linux, including the FTP client capability that is built into the Netscape Web browser as well as several graphical drag-and-drop clients. These FTP clients can be easier to use and offer a better user interface; however, an understanding of the command-line client not only gives you a better understanding of how the FTP service works, but also adds some additional features such as unattended or batch mode transfers.

Performing a file transfer using ftp as the client is a simple task. It basically consists of the following two steps:

1.	Establish a connection to an FTP server.