simpleftp(1)

simpleftp1

Rudimentary ftp and http(s) client

Usage

simpleftp url []

Overview

simpleftp is a Perl script that provides basic support for fetching files in a batch oriented fashion. It takes one or more FTP or HTTP(S) URLs on the command line. The file(s) will be retrieved from the remote FTP or web server(s) and placed in the current directory with the same basename as on the remote; e.g., <https://downloads.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/active.gz> is stored as active.gz in the current directory.

The script properly understands usernames, passwords and ports specified as follows:

    ftp://user:password@host:port/path/file

simpleftp has a hard-coded timeout of 30 seconds. It uses binary mode and passive mode for FTP data transfers.

It exits with status 0 on success. Otherwise, the exit status is the number of failed transfers.

INN only uses simpleftp when running actsyncd. If wget (or also ncftpget or ncftp for the sole scope of FTP) is found at configure time, then it will be used instead of this script.

Bugs

simpleftp is an extremely poor substitute for more complete programs like the freely available wget utility you are encouraged to use instead. It was written only to provide elementary support in INN for non-interactive fetching of the files in <https://downloads.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/> or <https://downloads.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/> without requiring administrators to install yet another package. Its shortcomings as a general purpose program are too numerous to mention, but one that stands out is that downloaded files by simpleftp override existing files with the same name in the local directory.

HTTP support requires the "HTTP::Tiny" Perl module, only installed in Perl 5.14.0 and above as a Perl core module. Besides, the "IO::Socket::SSL" and "Net::SSLeay" Perl modules are required for HTTPS support. In case they are not installed, simpleftp cannot handle these protocols.

History

Tossed off by David C Lawrence <[email protected]> for InterNetNews. Rewritten to use "HTTP::Tiny" and "Net::FTP" by Julien Élie.

From inn 2.7.4-4 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.