Download (mget) multiple files automatically in FTP transfer

[Computer_Freak]

File Transfer Protocol, a standard Internet protocol, is the simplest way to exchange files between computers on the Internet.It is a useful utility that allows you to transfer several files between a workstation or client with the FTP server.The objectives of FTP are:-

• To promote sharing of files
• To encourage indirect or implicit
• To shield a user from variations in file storage systems among hosts
• To transfer data reliably and efficiently.

This simple tool will let you do many things: download software, upload your own web pages, transfer information between your home and work machines, and more. You don't need to learn a lot of confusing commands, either. As is so often true with computers, the right tool makes the job much easier. In DOS or command line FTP, to transfer several files, you can use the commands mput (Multiple PUT) and mget (Multiple GET). These commands work exactly like put and get except the commands allow you to transfer multiple files in a single command by specifying the files that you want to transfer with wildcards such as * to get all files.

You need to logon to an FTP server. However, publicly available files are easily accessed using anonymous FTP. mget and mput will prompt user to choose Yes or No before each file is tranfered to or from the server which is troublesome and time wasting.To avoid the situation and automatically transfer the files so that the FTP session can process unattended, use the prompt command before using the mput or mget commands. The prompt command toggles between prompting on, where ftp will prompt you to choose yes or no before each file is transfered, and prompting off, which will copy all files without prompting.

[SpearMan]

Basic FTP support is usually provided as part of a suite of programs that come with TCP/IP. However, any FTP client program with a graphical user interface usually must be downloaded from the company that makes it.continue to FTP transfer all files without asking, remember to issue prompt command before starting the transfer process. Ask it do not prompt before putting or getting the files, make sure that your existing files do have have the same file name as FTP will overwrite the existing files that exists on the destination directory automatically too. The command is simple, just a single word “prompt”:

ftp> prompt

Interactive mode off.

A set of commands that comprise the control information flowing from the user-FTP to the server-FTP process.

file

An ordered set of computer data (including programs), of arbitrary length, uniquely identified by a pathname.

mode

The mode in which data is to be transferred via the data connection. The mode defines the data format during transfer including EOR and EOF. The transfer modes defined in FTP are described in the Section on Transmission Modes.

[labman]

With prompting on, however, you can easily terminate the FTP file transfer session if the transfer might not work or might take too long by pressing Ctrl-C (^c or press and hold the Control and C keys simultaneously). FTP utility will ask:Continue with mput?. Responding with the character n (for No) will stop the transfer process.