1ncftpget(1)                 General Commands Manual                ncftpget(1)
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NAME

6       ncftpget - Internet file transfer program for scripts
7

SYNOPSIS

9       ncftpget [options] remote-host local-directory remote-files...
10
11       ncftpget [options] bookmark-name local-directory remote-files...
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13       ncftpget -f login.cfg [options] local-directory remote-files...
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15       ncftpget [options] ftp://url.style.host/path/name
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17       ncftpget -c [options] remote-host remote-file > stdout
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19       ncftpget -C [options] remote-host remote-file local-path-name
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21       ncftpget -c [options] ftp://url.style.host/path/name > stdout
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OPTIONS

24   Command line flags:
25       -u XX   Use username XX instead of anonymous.
26
27       -p XX   Use password XX with the username.
28
29       -P XX   Use  port  number  XX  instead  of the default FTP service port
30               (21).
31
32       -j XX   Use account XX in supplement to the username and password (dep‐
33               recated).
34
35       -d XX   Use the file XX for debug logging.
36
37       -a      Use ASCII transfer type instead of binary.
38
39       -t XX   Timeout after XX seconds.
40
41       -v/-V   Do  (do  not)  use  progress  meters.   The  default  is to use
42               progress meters if the output stream is a TTY.
43
44       -f XX   Read the file XX for host, user, and password information.
45
46       -c      Read from remote host and write locally to standard out.
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48       -C      Read from remote host and write locally to specified pathname.
49
50       -A      Append to local files, instead of overwriting them.
51
52       -z/-Z   Do (do not) try to resume transfers.  The default is to try  to
53               resume (-z).
54
55       -E      Use regular (PORT) data connections.
56
57       -F      Use  passive  (PASV)  data  connections.  The default is to use
58               passive, but to fallback to regular if the  passive  connection
59               fails or times out.
60
61       -DD     Delete remote file after successfully downloading it.
62
63       -R      Recursive mode; copy whole directory trees.
64
65       -T      Do  not use automatic on-the-fly TAR mode for downloading whole
66               directory trees.  ncftpget uses  TAR  whenever  possible  since
67               this  usually  preserves  symbolic  links and file permissions.
68               TAR mode can also result in faster  transfers  for  directories
69               containing many small files, since a single data connection can
70               be used rather than an FTP data connection for each small file.
71               The  downside to using TAR is that it forces downloading of the
72               whole directory, even if you had previously downloaded  a  por‐
73               tion  of  it earlier, so you may want to use this option if you
74               want to resume downloading of a directory.
75
76       -r XX   Redial a maximum of XX times until connected to the remote  FTP
77               server.
78
79       -b      Run  in background (by submitting a batch job and then spawning
80               ncftpbatch).
81
82       -bb     Similar to -b option, but only submits the batch job.  You will
83               need to run ncftpbatch for the batch job to be processed.  This
84               is useful if you already have a ncftpbatch process running,  or
85               wish to have better control of when batch jobs are processed.
86
87               For example, if you wanted to do background processing of three
88               files all on the same remote server, it is more polite  to  use
89               just  one  ncftpbatch process to process the three jobs sequen‐
90               tially, rather than  having  three  ncftpbatch  processes  open
91               three simultaneous FTP sessions to the same server.
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93       -B XX   Try setting the TCP/IP socket buffer size to XX bytes.
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95       -W XX   Send raw FTP command XX after logging in.
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97       -X XX   Send raw FTP command XX after each file transferred.
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99       -Y XX   Send raw FTP command XX before logging out.
100
101               The  -W,  -X,  and -Y options are useful for advanced users who
102               need to tweak behavior on some  servers.   For  example,  users
103               accessing  mainframes might need to send some special SITE com‐
104               mands to set blocksize and record format information.
105
106               For these options, you can use them multiple times each if  you
107               need to send multiple commands.  For the -X option, you can use
108               the cookie %s to expand into the name  of  the  file  that  was
109               transferred.
110
111       -o XX   Set advanced option XX.
112
113               This option is used primarily for debugging.  It sets the value
114               of an internal variable to an integer value.  An example  usage
115               would  be:  -o useFEAT=0,useCLNT=1 which in this case, disables
116               use of the FEAT command and  enables  the  CLNT  command.   The
117               available  variables  include: usePASV, useSIZE, useMDTM, useR‐
118               EST, useNLST_a, useNLST_d, useFEAT, useMLSD, useMLST,  useCLNT,
119               useHELP_SITE, useSITE_UTIME, STATfileParamWorks, NLSTfileParam‐
120               Works, require20, allowProxyForPORT, doNotGetStartCWD.
121

DESCRIPTION

123       The purpose of ncftpget is to do file transfers from  the  command-line
124       without  entering  an  interactive  shell.   This  lets you write shell
125       scripts or other unattended processes that can do FTP.  It is also use‐
126       ful  for  advanced users who want to retrieve files from the shell com‐
127       mand line without entering an interactive FTP program such as ncftp.
128
129       One particularly useful feature of this program is that you can give it
130       a  uniform  resource  locator as the only argument and the program will
131       download that file.  You can then copy and paste from your web  browser
132       or newsreader and use that URL.  Example:
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134           $ cd /tmp
135           $ ncftpget ftp://ftp.ncftp.com/pub/ncftp/ncftp.tar.Z
136           $ zcat ncftp.tar.Z | tar xf -
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138       By  default  the program tries to open the remote host and login anony‐
139       mously, but you can specify a username and password  information.   The
140       -u  option  is  used  to  specify  the username to login as, and the -p
141       option is used to specify the password.  If you are running the program
142       from  the shell, you may omit the -p option and the program will prompt
143       you for the password.
144
145       Using the -u and -p options are not recommended, because  your  account
146       information  is exposed to anyone who can see your shell script or your
147       process information.  For example, someone using the ps  program  could
148       see your password while the program runs.
149
150       You  may  use  the -f option instead to specify a file with the account
151       information.  However, this is still not secure because anyone who  has
152       read  access  to  the information file can see the account information.
153       Nevertheless, if you choose to use the -f option the file  should  look
154       something like this:
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156           host sphygmomanometer.ncftp.com
157           user gleason
158           pass mypasswd
159
160       Don't  forget to change the permissions on this file so no one else can
161       read them.
162
163       The -d option is very useful when you are trying to diagnose why a file
164       transfer  is failing.  It prints out the entire FTP conversation to the
165       file you specify, so you can get an idea of what went  wrong.   If  you
166       specify  the  special  name  stdout as the name of the debugging output
167       file, the output will instead print to the screen.  Example:
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169           $ ncftpget -d stdout bowser.nintendo.co.jp . /pub/README
170           220: FTP server ready.
171           Connected to bowser.nintendo.co.jp.
172           Cmd: USER anonymous
173           331: Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
174           Cmd: PASS xxxxxxxx
175           230: Welcome!
176           Logged in to bowser.nintendo.co.jp as anonymous.
177           Cmd: TYPE I
178           200: Type set to I.
179           Cmd: PORT 192,168,9,37,6,76
180           200: PORT command successful.
181           Cmd: RETR /pub/README
182           550: /pub/README: File in use.
183           Cmd: QUIT
184           221: Goodbye.
185
186       Using ASCII mode is helpful when the text format of your  host  differs
187       from  that  of  the  remote host.  For example, if you are retrieving a
188       .TXT file from a Windows-based host to a UNIX system, you could use the
189       -a flag which would use ASCII transfer mode so that the file created on
190       the UNIX system would be in the UNIX text format instead of the  MS-DOS
191       text format.
192
193       You  can  retrieve  an  entire  directory tree of files by using the -R
194       flag.  However, this will work only if the remote FTP server is a  UNIX
195       server, or emulates UNIX's list output.  Example:
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197           $ ncftpget -R ftp.ncftp.com /tmp /pub/ncftp
198
199       This would create a /tmp/ncftp hierarchy.
200

DIAGNOSTICS

202       ncftpget returns the following exit values:
203
204       0       Success.
205
206       1       Could not connect to remote host.
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208       2       Could not connect to remote host - timed out.
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210       3       Transfer failed.
211
212       4       Transfer failed - timed out.
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214       5       Directory change failed.
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216       6       Directory change failed - timed out.
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218       7       Malformed URL.
219
220       8       Usage error.
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222       9       Error in login configuration file.
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224       10      Library initialization failed.
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226       11      Session initialization failed.
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AUTHOR

229       Mike Gleason, NcFTP Software (http://www.ncftp.com).
230

SEE ALSO

232       ncftpput(1), ncftp(1), ftp(1), rcp(1), tftp(1).
233
234       LibNcFTP (http://www.ncftp.com/libncftp/).
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238ncftpget                        NcFTP Software                     ncftpget(1)
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