The ftplib module

This module contains a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client implementation.

The first example shows how to log in and get a directory listing of the login directory. The dir function takes a callback function, which is called once for each line in the server response. The default callback provided by the ftplib module simply prints the response to sys.stdout.

Note that the format of the directory listing is server dependent (it’s usually the same as the format used by the directory listing utility on the server host platform).

Example: Using the ftplib module to get a directory listing

# File: ftplib-example-1.py

import ftplib

ftp = ftplib.FTP("www.python.org")
ftp.login("anonymous", "ftplib-example-1")

data = []

ftp.dir(data.append)

ftp.quit()

for line in data:
    print "-", line

$ python ftplib-example-1.py
- total 34
- drwxrwxr-x  11 root     4127         512 Sep 14 14:18 .
- drwxrwxr-x  11 root     4127         512 Sep 14 14:18 ..
- drwxrwxr-x   2 root     4127         512 Sep 13 15:18 RCS
- lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     bin           11 Jun 29 14:34 README -> welcome.msg
- drwxr-xr-x   3 root     wheel        512 May 19  1998 bin
- drwxr-sr-x   3 root     1400         512 Jun  9  1997 dev
- drwxrwxr--   2 root     4127         512 Feb  8  1998 dup
- drwxr-xr-x   3 root     wheel        512 May 19  1998 etc
...

Downloading files is easy; just use the appropriate retr function. Note that when you download a text file, you have to add line endings yourself. The following function uses a lambda expression to do that on the fly.

Example: Using the ftplib module to retrieve files

# File: ftplib-example-2.py

import ftplib
import sys

def gettext(ftp, filename, outfile=None):
    # fetch a text file
    if outfile is None:
        outfile = sys.stdout
    # use a lambda to add newlines to the lines read from the server
    ftp.retrlines("RETR " + filename, lambda s, w=outfile.write: w(s+"\n"))

def getbinary(ftp, filename, outfile=None):
    # fetch a binary file
    if outfile is None:
        outfile = sys.stdout
    ftp.retrbinary("RETR " + filename, outfile.write)

ftp = ftplib.FTP("www.python.org")
ftp.login("anonymous", "ftplib-example-2")

gettext(ftp, "README")
getbinary(ftp, "welcome.msg")

$ python ftplib-example-2.py
WELCOME to python.org, the Python programming language home site.

You are number %N of %M allowed users.  Ni!

Python Web site: http://www.python.org/

CONFUSED FTP CLIENT?  Try begining your login password with '-' dash.
This turns off continuation messages that may be confusing your client.
...

Finally, here’s a simple example that copies files to the FTP server. This script uses the file extension to figure out if the file is a text file or a binary file:

Example: Using the ftplib module to store files

# File: ftplib-example-3.py

import ftplib
import os

def upload(ftp, file):
    ext = os.path.splitext(file)[1]
    if ext in (".txt", ".htm", ".html"):
        ftp.storlines("STOR " + file, open(file))
    else:
        ftp.storbinary("STOR " + file, open(file, "rb"), 1024)

ftp = ftplib.FTP("ftp.fbi.gov")
ftp.login("mulder", "trustno1")

upload(ftp, "trixie.zip")
upload(ftp, "file.txt")
upload(ftp, "sightings.jpg")