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Python - FTP
Neha Kumawat
3 years ago
Table of Contents
- The Methods in FTP class
- Listing the Files
- Changing the Directory
- Fetching the Files
FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a well-known network protocol used to transfer files between computers in a network.
It is created on a client-server architecture and can be used along with user authentication. It can also be used without authentication but that will be less secure. FTP connection maintains a current working directory and other flags and each transfer requires a secondary connection through which the data is transferred. Most common web browsers can retrieve files hosted on FTP servers.
The Methods in FTP class
In python, we use the module ftplib which has the below-required methods to list the files as we will transfer the files.
Below are the examples of some of the above methods.
Listing the Files
The below example uses anonymous login to the FTP server and lists the content of the current directory. It treats through the name of the files and directories and stores them as a list. Then prints them out.
import ftplib
ftp = ftplib.FTP("ftp.nluug.nl")
ftp.login("anonymous", "ftplib-example-1")
data = []
ftp.dir(data.append)
ftp.quit()
for line in data:
print("-", line)
When we run the above program, we get the following output −
- lrwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 1 Nov 13 2012 ftp -> .
- lrwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 3 Nov 13 2012 mirror -> pub
- drwxr-xr-x 23 0 0 4096 Nov 27 2017 pub
- drwxr-sr-x 88 0 450 4096 May 04 19:30 site
- drwxr-xr-x 9 0 0 4096 Jan 23 2014 vol
Changing the Directory
The below program uses the CWD method available in the ftplib module to change the directory and then fetch the required content.
import ftplib
ftp = ftplib.FTP("ftp.nluug.nl")
ftp.login("anonymous", "ftplib-example-1")
data = []
ftp.cwd('/pub/') #change directory to /pub/
ftp.dir(data.append)
ftp.quit()
for line in data:
print("-", line)
When we run the above program, we get the following output −
- lrwxrwxrwx 1 504 450 14 Nov 02 2007 FreeBSD -> os/BSD/FreeBSD
- lrwxrwxrwx 1 504 450 20 Nov 02 2007 ImageMagick -> graphics/ImageMagick
- lrwxrwxrwx 1 504 450 13 Nov 02 2007 NetBSD -> os/BSD/NetBSD
- lrwxrwxrwx 1 504 450 14 Nov 02 2007 OpenBSD -> os/BSD/OpenBSD
- -rw-rw-r-- 1 504 450 932 Jan 04 2015 README.nluug
- -rw-r--r-- 1 504 450 2023 May 03 2005 WhereToFindWhat.txt
- drwxr-sr-x 2 0 450 4096 Jan 26 2008 av
- drwxrwsr-x 2 0 450 4096 Aug 12 2004 comp
Fetching the Files
After getting the list of files as shown above, we can fetch a specific file by using the getfile method. This method moves a copy of the file from the remote system to
the local system from where the ftp connection was initiated.
import ftplib
import sys
def getFile(ftp, filename):
try:
ftp.retrbinary("RETR " + filename ,open(filename, 'wb').write)
except:
print "Error"
ftp = ftplib.FTP("ftp.nluug.nl")
ftp.login("anonymous", "ftplib-example-1")
ftp.cwd('/pub/') #change directory to /pub/
getFile(ftp,'README.nluug')
ftp.quit()
When we run the above program, we find the file README.nlug to be present in the local system from where the connection was initiated.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article and finally, you came
to know about Python - FTP.
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