ncftpput with spaces in file names

stancol · 03-09-2010, 07:11 PM

Tried searching for this but had no luck. So if I missed the answer to my question please post a link. Hopefully I'm posting in the right area as this is my first post to this forum.

Wrote me a nice script to upload only new files recursively from a directory. Only problem I'm having is when it comes to files with spaces in the name.

According to the ncftp manual:

ncftpput [options] remote-host remote-directory local-files...

Where I run into trouble is the s on the end of local-files. Since you can put more than one file in the upload string the spaces in files simply look like seperate files and the upload fails.

-----Script goes kind of like this-----

upload=`find $local -newer $status -type f`

touch $status

if [ -z "$upload" ]; then
echo "Nothing to do...exiting"
exit
else
#SAVEIFS=$IFS
#IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")
for each in $upload; do
remote_dir=`echo "$each" | awk -F/ '{ print $6 }'`
echo -en "\n\nRemote Directory=$remote_dir"
echo -e "File Name=$each"
cmd1="$ftp -b -u $username -p $passwd $host /$remote_dir ${each}"
$cmd1
#IFS=$SAVEIFS
done
fi
exit

-----End Script-----

I've tried it with and without the $IFS line and it still fails. Any ideas on how to make to do an upload with files that contain spaces?

(Might have to break down and try something other than ncftpput but it works so well except for the space issue.)

smoker · 03-09-2010, 07:26 PM

Put quotes in the output around the file name ?

Code:

cmd1="$ftp -b -u $username -p $passwd $host /$remote_dir "${each}""

Might need to experiment with type of quote a bit. It may not like set of double quotes inside double quotes.

Don't know enough bash to know which ones are important, but in perl you can use single quotes surrounding the command and double quotes inside. Or vice versa. You may even need to escape them.

stancol · 03-09-2010, 11:53 PM

Quote:

"${each}"

Tried it....no luck.

Also tried '${each}' with no luck. I hope your right and I just need to figure out how to quote it correctly.

Guttorm · 03-10-2010, 11:32 AM

Hi

Not really sure why your script doesn't work. But if you try something else, try lftp. It has a command called mirror that does exactly what the script does. So you could do it with a single lftp command instead.

stancol · 03-10-2010, 12:07 PM

Found an answer to my script issue:

Code:

upload=`find $local -newer $status -type f`

touch $status

if [ -z "$upload" ]; then
    echo "Nothing to do...exiting"
    exit
        else
            SAVEIFS=$IFS
            IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")
            for each in $upload; do
            remote_dir=`echo "$each" | awk -F/ '{ print $6 }'`
            echo -en "\n\nRemote Directory=$remote_dir"
            echo -e "File Name=$each"
            ncftpput -bb -u $username -p $passwd $host /$remote_dir "$each"
            IFS=$SAVEIFS
            done
            fi
exit

By getting rid of the cmd1= part and replacing it directly with ncftput I didn't need the double quotes so I could then effectively use them around $each.

I'm trying to recursively upload only files that have changed in a directory. No changes = no upload. The thing I like about ncftpput is that you can set it up into a batch file. Then you can choose when you want to execute the upload via the command 'ncftpbatch'.

Haven't tried the lftp command but it looks like it has some cool applications as well. I'll have to explore that later now that I have a working script.

Thanks for all the useful input.