20.11. ftplib — FTP protocol client

This module defines the class FTP and a few related items. The FTP class implements the client side of the FTP protocol. You can use this to write Python programs that perform a variety of automated FTP jobs, such as mirroring other ftp servers. It is also used by the module urllib.request to handle URLs that use FTP. For more information on FTP (File Transfer Protocol), see Internet RFC 959.

Here’s a sample session using the ftplib module:

>>> from ftplib import FTP
>>> ftp = FTP('ftp.cwi.nl')   # connect to host, default port
>>> ftp.login()               # user anonymous, passwd anonymous@
>>> ftp.retrlines('LIST')     # list directory contents
total 24418
drwxrwsr-x   5 ftp-usr  pdmaint     1536 Mar 20 09:48 .
dr-xr-srwt 105 ftp-usr  pdmaint     1536 Mar 21 14:32 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp-usr  pdmaint     5305 Mar 20 09:48 INDEX
 .
 .
 .
>>> ftp.retrbinary('RETR README', open('README', 'wb').write)
'226 Transfer complete.'
>>> ftp.quit()

The module defines the following items:

class ftplib.FTP(host='', user='', passwd='', acct=''[, timeout])

Return a new instance of the FTP class. When host is given, the method call connect(host) is made. When user is given, additionally the method call login(user, passwd, acct) is made (where passwd and acct default to the empty string when not given). The optional timeout parameter specifies a timeout in seconds for blocking operations like the connection attempt (if is not specified, the global default timeout setting will be used).

exception ftplib.error_reply

Exception raised when an unexpected reply is received from the server.

exception ftplib.error_temp

Exception raised when an error code signifying a temporary error (response codes in the range 400–499) is received.

exception ftplib.error_perm

Exception raised when an error code signifying a permanent error (response codes in the range 500–599) is received.

exception ftplib.error_proto

Exception raised when a reply is received from the server that does not fit the response specifications of the File Transfer Protocol, i.e. begin with a digit in the range 1–5.

ftplib.all_errors

The set of all exceptions (as a tuple) that methods of FTP instances may raise as a result of problems with the FTP connection (as opposed to programming errors made by the caller). This set includes the four exceptions listed above as well as socket.error and IOError.

See also

Module netrc

Parser for the .netrc file format. The file .netrc is typically used by FTP clients to load user authentication information before prompting the user.

The file Tools/scripts/ftpmirror.py in the Python source distribution is a script that can mirror FTP sites, or portions thereof, using the ftplib module. It can be used as an extended example that applies this module.

20.11.1. FTP Objects

Several methods are available in two flavors: one for handling text files and another for binary files. These are named for the command which is used followed by lines for the text version or binary for the binary version.

FTP instances have the following methods:

FTP.set_debuglevel(level)

Set the instance’s debugging level. This controls the amount of debugging output printed. The default, 0, produces no debugging output. A value of 1 produces a moderate amount of debugging output, generally a single line per request. A value of 2 or higher produces the maximum amount of debugging output, logging each line sent and received on the control connection.

FTP.connect(host='', port=0[, timeout])

Connect to the given host and port. The default port number is 21, as specified by the FTP protocol specification. It is rarely needed to specify a different port number. This function should be called only once for each instance; it should not be called at all if a host was given when the instance was created. All other methods can only be used after a connection has been made.

The optional timeout parameter specifies a timeout in seconds for the connection attempt. If no timeout is passed, the global default timeout setting will be used.

FTP.getwelcome()

Return the welcome message sent by the server in reply to the initial connection. (This message sometimes contains disclaimers or help information that may be relevant to the user.)

FTP.login(user='anonymous', passwd='', acct='')

Log in as the given user. The passwd and acct parameters are optional and default to the empty string. If no user is specified, it defaults to 'anonymous'. If user is 'anonymous', the default passwd is 'anonymous@'. This function should be called only once for each instance, after a connection has been established; it should not be called at all if a host and user were given when the instance was created. Most FTP commands are only allowed after the client has logged in. The acct parameter supplies “accounting information”; few systems implement this.

FTP.abort()

Abort a file transfer that is in progress. Using this does not always work, but it’s worth a try.

FTP.sendcmd(cmd)

Send a simple command string to the server and return the response string.

FTP.voidcmd(cmd)

Send a simple command string to the server and handle the response. Return nothing if a response code corresponding to success (codes in the range 200–299) is received. Raise error_reply otherwise.

FTP.retrbinary(cmd, callback, blocksize=8192, rest=None)

Retrieve a file in binary transfer mode. cmd should be an appropriate RETR command: 'RETR filename'. The callback function is called for each block of data received, with a single string argument giving the data block. The optional blocksize argument specifies the maximum chunk size to read on the low-level socket object created to do the actual transfer (which will also be the largest size of the data blocks passed to callback). A reasonable default is chosen. rest means the same thing as in the transfercmd() method.

FTP.retrlines(cmd, callback=None)

Retrieve a file or directory listing in ASCII transfer mode. cmd should be an appropriate RETR command (see retrbinary()) or a command such as LIST, NLST or MLSD (usually just the string 'LIST'). LIST retrieves a list of files and information about those files. NLST retrieves a list of file names. On some servers, MLSD retrieves a machine readable list of files and information about those files. The callback function is called for each line with a string argument containing the line with the trailing CRLF stripped. The default callback prints the line to sys.stdout.

FTP.set_pasv(boolean)

Enable “passive” mode if boolean is true, other disable passive mode. Passive mode is on by default.

FTP.storbinary(cmd, file, blocksize=8192, callback=None)

Store a file in binary transfer mode. cmd should be an appropriate STOR command: "STOR filename". file is an open file object which is read until EOF using its read() method in blocks of size blocksize to provide the data to be stored. The blocksize argument defaults to 8192. callback is an optional single parameter callable that is called on each block of data after it is sent.

FTP.storlines(cmd, file, callback=None)

Store a file in ASCII transfer mode. cmd should be an appropriate STOR command (see storbinary()). Lines are read until EOF from the open file object file using its readline() method to provide the data to be stored. callback is an optional single parameter callable that is called on each line after it is sent.

FTP.transfercmd(cmd, rest=None)

Initiate a transfer over the data connection. If the transfer is active, send a EPRT or PORT command and the transfer command specified by cmd, and accept the connection. If the server is passive, send a EPSV or PASV command, connect to it, and start the transfer command. Either way, return the socket for the connection.

If optional rest is given, a REST command is sent to the server, passing rest as an argument. rest is usually a byte offset into the requested file, telling the server to restart sending the file’s bytes at the requested offset, skipping over the initial bytes. Note however that RFC 959 requires only that rest be a string containing characters in the printable range from ASCII code 33 to ASCII code 126. The transfercmd() method, therefore, converts rest to a string, but no check is performed on the string’s contents. If the server does not recognize the REST command, an error_reply exception will be raised. If this happens, simply call transfercmd() without a rest argument.

FTP.ntransfercmd(cmd, rest=None)

Like transfercmd(), but returns a tuple of the data connection and the expected size of the data. If the expected size could not be computed, None will be returned as the expected size. cmd and rest means the same thing as in transfercmd().

FTP.nlst(argument[, ...])

Return a list of file names as returned by the NLST command. The optional argument is a directory to list (default is the current server directory). Multiple arguments can be used to pass non-standard options to the NLST command.

FTP.dir(argument[, ...])

Produce a directory listing as returned by the LIST command, printing it to standard output. The optional argument is a directory to list (default is the current server directory). Multiple arguments can be used to pass non-standard options to the LIST command. If the last argument is a function, it is used as a callback function as for retrlines(); the default prints to sys.stdout. This method returns None.

FTP.rename(fromname, toname)

Rename file fromname on the server to toname.

FTP.delete(filename)

Remove the file named filename from the server. If successful, returns the text of the response, otherwise raises error_perm on permission errors or error_reply on other errors.

FTP.cwd(pathname)

Set the current directory on the server.

FTP.mkd(pathname)

Create a new directory on the server.

FTP.pwd()

Return the pathname of the current directory on the server.

FTP.rmd(dirname)

Remove the directory named dirname on the server.

FTP.size(filename)

Request the size of the file named filename on the server. On success, the size of the file is returned as an integer, otherwise None is returned. Note that the SIZE command is not standardized, but is supported by many common server implementations.

FTP.quit()

Send a QUIT command to the server and close the connection. This is the “polite” way to close a connection, but it may raise an exception if the server responds with an error to the QUIT command. This implies a call to the close() method which renders the FTP instance useless for subsequent calls (see below).

FTP.close()

Close the connection unilaterally. This should not be applied to an already closed connection such as after a successful call to quit(). After this call the FTP instance should not be used any more (after a call to close() or quit() you cannot reopen the connection by issuing another login() method).