Implicit SSL FTP Clients with Scripting?

malcomvetter asks: "I need a command line FTP client that supports 'Implicit SSL', sports some kind of scripting interface, and runs on Win32. Any suggestions? So far, I have only found GUI versions such as FileZilla." I remember once needing a scripting FTP client long ago. It took me a long time, but I finally found one that had a workable but unintuitive interface. Have scripting FTP clients become more prevalent or is your best bet using something flexible with network bindings (like Python or Perl) to get the job done?

Comments

cURL?

[forsetti]

Try cURL. Available for every platform under the sun, and does almost everything.

Personally

[DJStarquake]

I needed the same, and used CuteFTP. (Commercial). It has an SDK so you can use its methods from within services etc. Does what it says on the tin - I scripted using WSH, others may vary. In fact I noted the fact that scripting would rarely be needed as it has a great scheduler that met most of our requirments (we only needed scripting for triggers).

Cygwin

[aventius]

Install Cygwin (basically its a Unix command line & environment for Windows) and then install sftp, scp, or ssh. All three will get the job done. I have never found a Windows FTP GUI that I liked... hell I haven't found an SFTP GUI on any platform that I liked. Fetch on OSX is very nice but doesn't support SFTP (unless I'm an idiot and missed something).

scp

[Kiaser Zohsay]

PuTTY has pscp and Cygwin has scp from the openssh package. SSL encryption and files get from point A to point B. I use perl to move files to a web server and simultaneously update a MySQL table of file info (filename, description, size, modifed date), so its scriptable as all hell.

4NT

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just a command shell with great scripting. It also does FTP.

What about SSH certs and Rsync?

[madstork2000]

I have to transfer files and directories across several locations, and I do it automatically using rsync and SSH certificates.

SSH is configured to only allow transfers with a valid certificate from a valid IP address. There is no pass-phrase on the certs.

Copying / syncing directories is a breeze:

rsync -ae ssh server1:/copy/this/directory/ /to/this/directory

No fuss. I have not tried rsync on win32, but I am sure it exists. I do a lot of web development, but have not used a ftp client on a regular basis in years. My sites are backed up to remote servers using this method, and new sites are uploaded using rsync as well.

Its fast, easy to use and saves on bandwidth, as only changes are transfered. With FTP the whole file is always moved. SO bandwidth savings alone may be worth looking into this solution.

-MS2k

Re:scp

[divbyzero]

Not relevant to the original poster's question, but if you need to download larger files than pscp supports, why not try the following:

plink username@hostname cat remote-filename > local-filename

For upload, use this instead:

plink username@hostname "cat > remote-filename" local-filename

Who needs a dedicated file transfer protocol? :-)

(plink is the PuTTY package's equivalent of the standard command line SSH client, with no GUI nor terminal emulation)