ftp CLI question
 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Since graphical ftp programs are able to send directories, I'd bet there is a command or argument to get or mget to send directories. When I try to put a directory (say /home/jim/installs I get the message "/home/jim/installs not a regular file" ,and it says the same if I tell it to put or mput /home/jim/installs/). I know I can go within a the directory and mput *, but I would like to make it nice and clean, and get everything to go in one command.

man ftp and google searches didn't point me in any helpful directions - can somebody help me out please?

Thanks,
JimBass

Unless I misunderstand -

What those ftp programs do is to create the directory remotely, then populate it with files as the files are moved over.

Here's why - file systems 'number' each file with something called an inode (gross oversimplification). This number could already be in use on the system you are sending the files to. If you simply plopped your directory file in there, it would point to already existing files. You would break the file system.

The inode is unique within a given file system. one physical file = one inode.

Jim,

Very good of you to answer, but I have to raise 1 issue with you:

I am Jim McNamara!

That's great though, Jim McNamara asks a question, and Jim McNamara answers the question. If we were John Smith or Bob Jones I would accept it easily. Are you the guy that owns jimmcnamara.com - I'm looking for him!

I had continued to research, and didn't find anything as short and simple as your answer, but came to understand that there seemed to be no way to move directories without the aid of a non-CLI client. That's a drag, as I am moving multiple websites from server to server, and they don't run x. I'll have to actually do some work, rather than select /var/www/html and be done with it. Oh well.

Thanks for the help in any case!

Peace
Jim McNamara