# Net::FTP questions

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/net-ftp-questions/68354>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [September 12, 2006, 12:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/net-ftp-questions/68354 "2006-09-12T00:39:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Lincoln_Anderson)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 12:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/net-ftp-questions/68354/1 "2006-09-12T00:39:22Z")

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Hello…

I am attempting to write a client side script that mirrors a user’s  
/home/\* on a remote server. Granted, I _could_ use ftpmirror in my  
Ubuntu distribution, but I’d like to get more familiar with network  
and filesystem operations in Ruby.

The basic algorithm as I see it would be to logon, get a list of all  
files and folders via the Net::FTP.list(\*args) command, run it through  
a block or a for loop or some other iterator, ducking into  
subdirectories as needed (and mkdir-ing them on the client side), and  
doing a get() of all the files in each subdirectory.

Here’s where my problem comes in. How can I tell from the list array  
whether an item is a directory or a file to be copied? Is there  
something I can use (such as an FTP command) to catch a clue on how to  
implement this? I know this is possible, as ftpmirror is done with  
PERL and Ruby can do anything PERL can do - better 🙂

Google is no help, and neither is running searches on ruby-talk  
itself… Anyone done anything similar and have any tips? Any advice  
whatsoever is appreciated.

Lincoln Anderson  
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**Author:** ![Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Lincoln_Anderson)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 10:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/net-ftp-questions/68354/2 "2006-09-12T10:46:26Z")

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Hi,

Le mardi 12 septembre 2006 à 07:39 +0900, Lincoln Anderson a écrit :

> Here’s where my problem comes in. How can I tell from the list array  
> whether an item is a directory or a file to be copied? Is there  
> something I can use (such as an FTP command) to catch a clue on how to  
> implement this? I know this is possible, as ftpmirror is done with  
> PERL and Ruby can do anything PERL can do - better 🙂

The output of FTP#ls should be something like :  
drwxr-x— 2 login ftp 96 Sep 11 16:07 mydir  
-rwxr-x— 2 login ftp 96 Sep 11 16:07 myfile

So you will know an entry is a directory if the string begins by “d”.

Vincent

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Lincoln_Anderson)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 4:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/net-ftp-questions/68354/3 "2006-09-12T16:51:13Z")

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Vincent A. wrote:

> 

Yeah, I noticed that after my post… I guess I was trying to  
complicate things 🙂

Thanks,  
Lincoln Anderson  
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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Lincoln_Anderson)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/net-ftp-questions/68354/4 "2006-09-12T18:47:29Z")

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Le mercredi 13 septembre 2006 à 00:14 +0900, James Cribbs a écrit :  
Lincoln Anderson wrote:

> Here’s where my problem comes in. How can I tell from the list array  
> whether an item is a directory or a file to be copied? Is there  
> something I can use (such as an FTP command) to catch a clue on how to  
> implement this? I know this is possible, as ftpmirror is done with  
> PERL and Ruby can do anything PERL can do - better 🙂

Perhaps this can be useful to browse the FTP server tree (directory  
names finish by ‘/’, others are files):

def recursive\_listing(ftp, path)  
liste\_ftp = Array.new  
list = ftp.ls(path)  
if list.length == 0  
return []  
end  
if list[0].split[0] == ‘total’  
list.delete\_at(0)  
end  
if list[0].split[8] == ‘.’  
list.delete\_at(0)  
end  
if list[0].split[8] == ‘…’  
list.delete\_at(0)  
end  
list.each { |str|  
if str.split[0].index(‘d’) == 0  
liste\_ftp += [path + “/” + str.split[8] + “/”]  
liste\_ftp += [recursive\_listing(ftp, path + “/”

- str.split[8])]  
else  
liste\_ftp += [path + “/” + str.split[8]]  
end  
}  
return liste\_ftp.flatten  
end

ftp = Net::FTP.new(‘ftp\_serveur’)  
ftp.login(‘login’, ‘passwd’)  
ftp\_list = recursive\_listing(ftp, ‘starting\_directory’)  
ftp.close

It might need some corrections depending your FTP server configuration.

Cheers,  
Vincent

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Lincoln_Anderson)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 7:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/net-ftp-questions/68354/5 "2006-09-12T19:27:32Z")

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Vincent A. wrote:

> names finish by ‘/’, others are files):  
> ftp = Net::FTP.new(‘ftp\_serveur’) ftp.login(‘login’, ‘passwd’)

That looks exactly like what I’m trying to do for the directory  
hierarchy mirror. I’m still learning to think in Ruby… I keep going  
back to C/C++ solutions and other heavy hitter languages… I’ll tweak  
that and see if I can get it working. I’ll post my results when I get  
it running (or I have any other insurmountable problems…).

Thanks,  
Lincoln Anderson  
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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lincoln\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Lincoln_Anderson)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/net-ftp-questions/68354/6 "2006-09-12T17:17:16Z")

</div>

Lincoln Anderson wrote:

> Here’s where my problem comes in. How can I tell from the list array  
> whether an item is a directory or a file to be copied? Is there  
> something I can use (such as an FTP command) to catch a clue on how to  
> implement this? I know this is possible, as ftpmirror is done with  
> PERL and Ruby can do anything PERL can do - better 🙂

Here’s a class I defined to use in a script I run that moves files  
between various Unix and Windows servers at my company. Haven’t looked  
at the code in a while, so it might be ugly, but it works!

class FTPLocation  
def initialize(host, userid, password, path)  
@host, @userid, @password = host, userid, password

```
    if path.nil?
        @path = './'
    else
        @path = path
    end
end

```

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
# to\_s

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
def to\_s  
return ‘%s - %s’ % [@host, @path]  
end

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
# connect

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
def connect  
@ftp = Net::FTP.new(@host, @userid, @password)

# @ftp.debug\_mode = true

```
    @ftp.chdir(@path)
end

```

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
# empty?

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
def empty?  
@ftp.list.each do |entry|  
next if entry[0] == ‘d’  
return false  
end  
return true  
end

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
# each\_file

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
def each\_file  
t = Time.now  
@ftp.list.each do |entry|  
next if entry[0] == ‘d’  
filename = entry.split(’ ')[-1]  
next if t - @ftp.mtime(filename) \< 300  
yield filename  
end  
end

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
# file\_exists?

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
def file\_exists?(filename)  
@ftp.list.each do |entry|  
next if entry[0] == ‘d’  
return true if filename == entry.split(’ ')[-1]  
end  
return false  
end

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
# get\_file

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
def get\_file(filename, dest\_path, xfer\_type)  
if xfer\_type == ‘binary’  
@ftp.getbinaryfile(filename, dest\_path)  
else  
@ftp.gettextfile(filename, dest\_path)  
end  
end

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
# put\_file

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
def put\_file(source\_path, filename, xfer\_type)  
if xfer\_type == ‘binary’  
@ftp.putbinaryfile(source\_path, filename)  
else  
@ftp.puttextfile(source\_path, filename)  
end  
end

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
# delete\_file

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
def delete\_file(filename)  
@ftp.delete(filename)  
end

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
# close

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
def close  
@ftp.close if @ftp  
end  
end

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