Anyone know a way to do a command line ftp that logs into a server downloads what is in it, then deletes everything out of the source? I want to put this in a shell script to run in cron.

TIA

If you have lftp installed, check the man page.

I have used this script to receive files. Please note that I have edited this script to remove non-necessary code. It has not been tested as is appears below. It makes 2 connections, the first one receives the files. After moving the files to the destination directory and creating a list of files to delete, a second call deletes the files. If you need to navigate to a sub-directory at the remote site, add the command before the 'mget *' in the receive and output it at the beginning of the $DEL_LIST file in the delete session. Only files transfered will be deleted at the remote site.


Hope it helps.



<--------------------------------------- Cut here ------------------------------>
#!/bin/sh
#
# FTP_IN = working directory for ftp transfer
# FTP_FINAL = final directory for files on local machine
#
# Also, requires an entry in a .netrc file to define the user id and
# password for remote.system.
#
#

FTP_IN=/tmp/ftp_in
FTP_FINAL=/tmp/collected_files

#
# Log on remote to get files
#
# commands can ve added before mget * to navigate to a directory.
#
echo
echo "Logging on to the Remote ftp site..."
cd $FTP_IN
ftp -i remote.system << FTP_EOF > /dev/null 2>&1







mget *







quit
FTP_EOF

echo
echo "Files Received:"
echo
l $FTP_IN

echo
cd $FTP_IN

ls > /tmp/temp$$ 2>/dev/null

if [ -s /tmp/temp$$ ]
then : ok
else rm /tmp/temp$$
echo
echo
echo No files found to process!!
echo
echo
exit 0
fi


DEL_LIST=/tmp/edi.del$$
>$DEL_LIST

# echo cd sub_dir >> $DEL_LIST

if [ -s /tmp/temp$$ ]
then for file in `ls`

do mv $file $FTP_FINAL/$file
echo del $file >> $DEL_LIST
done
fi

rm /tmp/temp$$

echo >> $DEL_LIST
echo >> $DEL_LIST
echo >> $DEL_LIST
echo quit >> $DEL_LIST

ftp remote.system < $DEL_LIST > /dev/null 2>&1

rm $DEL_LIST

exit 0

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thanks for the replies, I'll give your script a shot birdguy. I have something similar.

ftp file

then i invoke from a diff script with

I'm coming from windows on this and the cmd line ftp for windows doesn't have an option to remote del, I find the one supplied with linux to be better

If a file is added to the remote site between your mget and mdelete, it will be deleted without being received. I doubt this would ever be a problem, but it is a possibility.