Roadmap For The Information Superhighway Internet Training Workshop

MAP14: FTP (Part Two)

"Technology ... the knack of so arranging the world that we need
not experience it."
Max Frisch, Homo Faber

In the last lesson I told you that the basic steps in an FTP session are:
  1. Start-up your FTP client.
  2. Give your FTP client an address to connect to (and, just like TELNET, step one and two can be combined into one easy step).
  3. Identify yourself to the remote site.
  4. Give the remote site your password.
  5. Look around the directory for files.
  6. Change Directories.
  7. Set the transfer mode (optional).
  8. Get the file(s) you want.
  9. Quit.
I've accessed SURAnet's FTP site (ftp.sura.net), told the site that I am "anonymous", and given the site my full Internet address as my password.

Now that I'm in, I'm going to look around and see what the SURAnet FTP site has to offer.

(BTW, you can see a list of all of the acceptable commands for your FTP client by typing "help")

On most FTP clients, the command to list the contents of the current directory on the remote machine is just

My FTP client accepts and uses the "dir" command, so I type and the following appears on my screen: 
   >>>PORT 130,160,4,100,212,230
   200 PORT command successful
   >>>LIST
   150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
   total 728
   drwxrwx--x   3 0        0              512 Aug  5 01:55 bin
   drwxr-xr-x   2 0        1              512 May 10 12:47 etc
   drwxrwxrwx   6 0        10             512 Oct 21 11:37 incoming
   drwxr-xr-x   2 0        0             8192 Feb 15  1992 lost+found
   -rw-r--r--   1 0        1           350142 Oct 25 00:00 ls-lR
   drwxrwxr-r  24 0        100            512 May  3 13:25 pub
This is a listing of all of the stuff in the current directory. Let's take a look at the first entry and see if we can figure out what all of this means: If the line begins with a "-" instead of a "d", it is a file. The letter "d" at the beginning of this example tells me that this is not a file -- it is a subdirectory.

What does that mean? Well, pretend that the FTP site is simply a big house. You walk into the house through the front door, and you find yourself standing in an entry hall. The entry hall may have some neat stuff in it, but it also has doors leading to other rooms throughout the house.

The subdirectories -- the "d"s -- are just doors to other "rooms" at the FTP site, and the files -- the "-"s -- are the neat stuff that you can get while you are at the site.

Getting back to our example,

the "drwxrwx--x" tells us that this entry is a subdirectory (the "rwxrwx--x" part is just some security stuff). The "512" tells us the size of the subdirectory in bytes. The "Aug 5 01:55" tells us the date and time that this subdirectory was last updated. The last part -- the "bin" -- tells us the name of the subdirectory.

Let's look at one more example:

There is a "-" instead of a "d", so this is a file. The "350142" tells us that the size of this file is 350,142 bytes, the file was last updated at midnight on October 25, and the name of this file is "ls-lR".

Let's get back to the main SURAnet directory contents: 

   drwxrwx--x   3 0        0              512 Aug  5 01:55 bin
   drwxr-xr-x   2 0        1              512 May 10 12:47 etc
   drwxrwxrwx   6 0        10             512 Oct 21 11:37 incoming
   drwxr-xr-x   2 0        0             8192 Feb 15  1992 lost+found
   -rw-r--r--   1 0        1           350142 Oct 25 00:00 ls-lR
   drwxrwxr-r  24 0        100            512 May  3 13:25 pub
I want to change this main directory and get into a subdirectory. To change directories on most FTP clients, you use the command and replace <directory> with the name of the directory that you want to access.

Since I am interested in public information, I'm going to get into "pub" directory ("pub" is the standard FTP abbreviation for "public"). I type

and the following appears on my screen: 
   >>>CWD PUB
   550 PUB: No such file or directory.
Uhhh ... what happened?

One of the unfortunate shortcomings of FTP is that, for most of you, FTP is case sensitive. My "cd PUB" command did not work because there is no "PUB" directory ... but there is a "pub" directory :)

Let's try it again. I type

and the following appears on my screen: 
   >>>CWD pub
   250 CWD command successful.
Cool! It worked!

Now I need to see the contents of this new directory that I just entered. Do you remember what FTP command I should use? (Hint: it is "dir")

I type "dir", and the following appears on my screen: 

   >>>PORT 130,160,4,100,215,140
   200 PORT command successful.
   >>>LIST
   150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
   Total 56
   -rw-rw-r--   1 1023     100           4052 Apr 22  1994 README
   drwxrwsr-x   2 1023     100            512 Aug  6  1993 SURAnet
   drwxrwxr-x   6 1020     120            512 Mar  3  1992 archie
   drwxrwxr-x   2 1034     120            512 Feb 15  1992 articles
   drwxrwxr-x   2 1007     110            512 Jun 22 15:40 books
   ... <stuff deleted by me>
Whoa! That first file -- README -- looks pretty important. I bet it contains some important information that will make my life a whole bunch easier (Good rule of thumb: if you see a file that contains the words README or INDEX, it is an important file).

I need to get this README file.

To get a file using FTP, you use the

command, replacing "<filename>" with the name of the file that you want to get. The get command retrieves the file from the remote site and stores the file on your service provider's system.

Since I want to get the README file, I type

(making sure to use the correct case), and the following appears on my screen: Now what?!?

This is a problem that some of you may have when you try to get "one word" files. Some local Internet service providers require files stored on their machines to have some sort of extension or type. Your can't have a file whose name is just README ... it has to be README.<type> (i.e. README.DOC, README.TXT, etc).

Since the "get README" command did not work, I'm going to have to use the

command, replacing <remote filename> with README, and replacing <name I want it saved as> with the name that I want the file to be saved as on my service provider's computer.

So, I type

and the following appears on my screen: 
   >>>PORT 130,160,4,100,218,90
   200 PORT command successful.
   >>>RETR README
   150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for README (4502 bytes).
After a few additional seconds, the following is added to my screen: 
   226 Transfer complete.
   4637 bytes transferred. Transfer rate 6.14 Kbytes/sec.
YIPPEE! It worked!! Let's quit FTP and see what we did.

To quit ftp, you need to use either the "bye" or "quit" commands.

On my client, the command is "quit", so I type

and the following appears on my screen: 
   221 Goodbye.
   Ready; T=0.54/0.96 01:45:53
Okay .. I got the file. But where is it? It is sitting on my account on my service provider's system!

Depending on your system, it is either easy or hard to get into the files that get from FTP (in Unix, type "ls"; in VM, type "fl"). Your local Internet service provider can tell you a little more about how to access, read, and print these files.

Looking at this new file that I just got from FTP, I discover that the contents of the README file are a brief explanation of what is in every subdirectory off of the pub directory (cool!):

The following items are available anonymous ftp from ftp.sura.net:

Directories found under pub:

archie/
Information on the archie service as well as client software to use archie.
articles/
Text versions of articles in the SURAnet newsletter.
books/
Subdirectory containing information on ordering discounted books through SURAnet.
databases/
The databases in raw format that are also offered through our WAIS server.
dns/
Software and documentation to help setup the Domain Name Server software on Unix machines (BIND)
fdic/
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's ftp archive.
... <<stuff deleted by me>>
NEAT! :)

I want to go back and get one of the articles in the SURAnet newsletter. Thanks to what I learned from the README file, I now know that the files that I am looking for are in "pub" directory and in the "articles" subdirectory.

In FTP notation, I can write this as

This means the same thing as saying "in the pub directory, in the articles subdirectory" and, as you will soon see, this notation will eventually even save me a few steps.

Let's go back to SURAnet and get some newsletter articles!

I type

and the following appears on my screen: 
   Connecting to ftp.sura.net 128.167.254.179, port 21
   220 nic.sura.net FTP server (Version wu-2.4(1) Fri May 20 10:20:58
   EDT 1994) ready.
   USER (identify yourself to the host):
Since I do not have an account on the SURAnet machine, I type and the following appears on my screen: 
   >>>USER anonymous
   331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
   Password:
I type my full Internet address -- pcrispe1@ua1vm.ua.edu -- as my password, and the following appears on my screen: 
   >>>PASS ********
   230-    SURAnet ftp server running wuarchive experimental ftpd
   230-
   230-Welcome to the SURAnet ftp server.  If you have any problems with
   230-the server please mail the to systems@sura.net. If you do have problems,
   230-please try using a dash (-) as the first character of your password
   230- -- this will turn off the continuation messages that may be confusing
   230-your ftp client.
   ...
   230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
   Command:
I know that I want to get into the "pub" directory, and then into the "articles" subdirectory. I could type "cd pub" and then "cd articles" to get into the subdirectory that I want, but it would be easier to just jump into the "articles" directory with one command.

I can make such a jump using the /pub/articles notation introduced a few minutes ago. If I type

I jump straight into the "articles" directory, and the following appears on my screen: 
   >>>CWD /pub/articles
   250 CWD command successful.
   Command:
Since I have no idea what is in the "articles" subdirectory that I just entered, I type and the following appears on my screen: 
   >>>PORT 130,160,4,100,222,127
   200 PORT command successful
   >>>LIST
   150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
   Total 382
   -rw-rw-r--   1 0      120          1510 Jan  3  1992 editors.box.text
   -rw-rw-r--   1 0      120         46167 Jan  3  1992 fall91.issue
   -rw-rw-r--   1 0      120         52864 Jan  3  1992 spring91.issue
   -rw-rw-r--   1 0      120          1515 Jan  3  1992 sub.form.txt
   -rw-rw-r--   1 0      120         36418 Jan  3  1992 summer91.issue
   -rw-rw-r--   1 0      120         53606 Jan  3  1992 winter90.issue
   226 Transfer complete
COOL! These files already have extensions (winter90.issue, etc.), so getting them is going to be a breeze!

Let's get the Fall '91 issue. Since I want the file "fall91.issue", I type

and the following appears on my screen: 
   >>>PORT 130,160,4,100,224,34
   200 PORT command successful
   >>>RETR fall91.issue
   150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for fall91.issue (46167 bytes).
After a few seconds, the following is added to my screen: 
   226 Transfer complete.
   47151 bytes transferred. Transfer rate 16.58 Kbytes/sec.
IT WORKED!!! YAY!!! :)

I then quit FTP by typing either "bye" or "quit", and I am done! The file "fall91.issue" is now sitting in my account on my local Internet service provider's machine!!

Next Lesson:


   (\__/)  .~    ~. ))
   /O O `./      .'               PATRICK DOUGLAS CRISPEN
  {O__,   \    {                   PCRISPE1@UA1VM.UA.EDU
    / .  . )    \                THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
    |-| '-' \    } ))
   .(   _(   )_.'         Roadmap: Copyright 1994 Patrick Crispen.
  '---.~_ _ _&                      All rights reserved.

                          The views expressed in this letter do not
                            necessarily represent the views of the
                             University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa.
[Syllabus]Go back to the Syllabus
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[Previous]MAP13: FTP (Part One)
Translated to HTML by Linda Sue Sohn (sohn@ll.mit.edu)
@(#)MAP14.html 1.1 (Roadmap Workshop) 2/20/95 08:45:12

Updated: 1995-03-28, 17:37