
			    the ftp-utils

The ftp-utils package installs the program `with-ftp' and a number of
`wftp' programs which give you access from an ordinary shell to a
remote filesystem.


The programs are:

	with-ftp

	wftp-cd
	wftp-delete
	wftp-get
	wftp-home
	wftp-ls
	wftp-mkdir
	wftp-noop
	wftp-put
	wftp-pwd
	wftp-rename
	wftp-rmdir

To use these programs invoke `with-ftp' as in these examples:

        # Access a remote file system by FTP:
        # 
	% with-ftp ftp://ftp.gnu.org sh
	% 


        # Access a remote file system by WebDav
        # 
	% with-ftp http://somesite.org sh
	% 


        # Access a remote file system by sftp
        # 
	% with-ftp http://somesite.org sh
	% 


FTP sites running the wu-ftp server do not handle the FTP requests
LIST and NLST in a standard way.  You should access those sites with:

        # Access a remote file system served by wu-ftp by FTP:
        # 
	% with-ftp wu-ftp://somesite.org sh
	% 

You can also access local filesystems via `with-ftp':

        # Access a local file system
        # 
	% with-ftp /some/local/directory
	% 


The second prompt in these examples is the prompt printed by the `sh'
that `with-ftp' ran.  That shell is a sub-process of `with-ftp'.

From that shell, you can use all of the other programs:

	
	% wftp-ls
	...directory listing from ftp.gnu.org...

	% ls
	...local directory listing...

	% wftp-get FILE
	...contents of FILE from ftp.gnu.org...

	etc.

The command `wftp-home' returns to whatever directory you specified in
the `ftp:' URL.  For example:

	% with-ftp ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub sh

	% wftp-ls
	...listing of directory `pub' on ftp.gnu.org...

	% wftp-cd gnu
	..."current with-ftp directory" is now `pub/gnu'

	% wftp-home
	..."current with-ftp directory" is now `pub'

All of the commands have a `--help' option.

You can also specify a user name and password:

	% with-ftp ftp://user:passwd@site/dir ...

Also included is the the program `ftp-push', a shell script which uses
`with-ftp' to update a remote mirror site:

	% ftp-push local-directory ftp://site/remote-directory

`ftp-push' updates a remote directory, making it a copy of a local
directory (recursively).  In the remote directories, it stores MD5
checksums of the programs stored (you must have a local copy of the
program `md5').  When updating an existing directory, it only
transfers files whose checksum has changed.


# tag: Tom Lord Thu Jan 10 05:27:59 2002 (ftp-utils/=README)
#
