question about ftp in terminal

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jeepster485

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Is it possible to upload an entire directory to an ftp server using a single command in Terminal? If not could someone explain how to upload items in a directory using Terminal and ftp? Thanks a million!
 
There is a terminal ftp command "mput" for "multiple put" which will do what you want.
To start ftp, type "ftp" at the terminal. You can open an address and even login on the same line, by typing ftp username:password@ftpserver

Then, enter "bin" to ensure you are in binary mode, then "lcd /path/to/local/folder" to set the local folder you want to copy onto the server. then "cd /path/to/remote/folder" to select the remote folder to place the files in.

Finally, enter mput * to transfer all files in the local directory into the remote folder.

You can probably script this pretty easily using a single shell script, if its a regularly occurring task. You might even use a cron job to trigger the upload at a specified interval (Type "man cron" into a new terminal window to get info on how this works) or possibly an AppleScript folder action to trigger the script anytime you change a file in a specific folder.
 
That's what I was looking for for part of my problem. I have a web page folder on my computer. Inside that folder are 3 other folders. When I do mput it will upload the files inside that folder but won't upload the folders. Is there any way to upload those folders, or do I have to created them on the web server, go into them locally and remotely, and then transfer all files inside those folders and just do that for all the folders? I hope that makes sense.....and thank you very much for your help!
 
You might also want to try out ncftp, which has a lot more comfort than ftp. ncftp is, of course, for the Terminal. -> http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6301

From the manpage:

The purpose of ncftp is to provide a powerful and flexible interface to the Internet standard File Transfer Protocol. It is intended to replace the stock ftp program that comes with the system.

Although the program appears to be rather spartan, you'll find that ncftp has a wealth of valuable performance and usage features. The program was designed with an emphasis on usability, and it does as much as it can for you automatically so you can do what you expect to do with a file transfer program, which is transfer files between two interconnected systems.

Some of the cooler features include progress meters, filename comple- tion, command-line editing, background processing, auto-resume down- loads, bookmarking, cached directory listings, host redialing, working with firewalls and proxies, downloading entire directory trees, etc., etc.

And another quote from that manpage:

The put command lets you send entire directory trees, too. It should work on all remote systems, so you can try ``put -R'' with a directory to upload the directory and its contents.
 
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