Bash FTP Script Cronjob

Bash FTP Scripting

Creating a Bash FTP Script and installing as a cronjob can be a great way to move files around at scheduled intervals .

Want to move files around at set intervals? Even to internal servers sometimes the best way to accomplish this is with a bash ftp script. The below example of a bash script logs onto a remote FTP server and checks for messages before downloading them to the /home/user/ftp_in folder. It then checks the /home/user/ftp_out folder and transmits any files found there to the remote FTP server and then finally moves any sent files to /home/user/ftp_sent for archiving purposes.

#!/bin/bash
#pull and push from FTP SERVER
#change to the ftp_in directory
cd /home/user/ftp_in
ftp -niv ftp.address.to.connect.to << FTP_COMMAND
user username password
cd To_pvlogistics
mget *
mdel *
bye
FTP_COMMAND

#Change to the ftp_out directory
cd /home/user/ftp_out
ftp -niv ftp.address.to.connect.to << FTP_COMMAND
user username password
mput *.*
bye
FTP_COMMAND
mv * /home/user/ftp_sent

Saving an example of this script in a file called /home/user/ftp-script.sh it can be installed as a cronjob to run every X minutes as below. In this example it is set to run every 10 minutes.
*/10 * * * * /home/user/ftp-script.sh

FTP man pages for further reading and information on standard FTP commands and usage examples:

FTP

File Transfer Protocol

Syntax
      FTP [-options] [-s:filename] [-w:buffer] [host]

Key   
   -s:filename   Run a text file containing FTP commands.

   host          Host name or IP address of the remote host.

   -g            Disable filename wildcards.

   -n            No auto-login.

   -i            No interactive prompts during ftp.

   -v            Hide remote server responses.

   -w:buffer     Set buffer size to buffer
                 (default=4096)

   -d            Debug
 
   -a            Use any local interface when binding data connection.

http://ss64.com/bash/ftp.html