Hi again: I have my ftp transfer script pretty much done. One thing I don't like about my implementation is I repeatedly open and close the same ftp connection to a target server.

If there a way to open a ftp connection and return the open connection for later reuse?

psuedo-code
open ftp connection
return to main bash script to do some work
send some commnds to the ftp connection
return to main bash script to do some work
send some more commnds to the ftp connection
close the ftp connection
go onto next target server and repeat

Thanks, Chris.

I can't imagine a way to suspend the ftp session and restore it later, but you can execute local shell commands from the ftp session itself. Example:
Notice the exclamation mark at the beginning of the line in red. It tells ftp to execute the command in the local shell. Shell substitutions will be performed as usual before the whole block of ftp code is executed. Hope this helps.