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ncftpget(1)		     General Commands Manual		     ncftpget(1)

NAME
     ncftpget - Internet file transfer program for scripts

SYNOPSIS
     ncftpget [options] remote-host local-directory remote-files...

     ncftpget [options] bookmark-name local-directory remote-files...

     ncftpget -f login.cfg [options] local-directory remote-files...

     ncftpget [options] ftp://url.style.host/path/name

     ncftpget -c [options] remote-host remote-file > stdout

     ncftpget -C [options] remote-host remote-file local-path-name

     ncftpget -c [options] ftp://url.style.host/path/name > stdout

OPTIONS
   Command line flags:
     -u XX   Use username XX instead of anonymous.

     -p XX   Use password XX with the username.

     -P XX   Use port number XX instead of the default FTP service port (21).

     -j XX   Use  account  XX in supplement to the username and password (depre-
	     cated).

     -d XX   Use the file XX for debug logging.

     -a      Use ASCII transfer type instead of binary.

     -t XX   Timeout after XX seconds.

     -v/-V   Do (do not) use progress meters.  The default is  to  use	progress
	     meters if the output stream is a TTY.

     -f XX   Read the file XX for host, user, and password information.

     -c      Read from remote host and write locally to standard out.

     -C      Read from remote host and write locally to specified pathname.

     -A      Append to local files, instead of overwriting them.

     -z/-Z   Do  (do not) try to resume transfers.  The default is to try to re-
	     sume (-z).

     -E      Use regular (PORT) data connections.

     -F      Use passive (PASV) data connections.  The default is  to  use  pas-
	     sive, but to fallback to regular if the passive connection fails or
	     times out.

     -DD     Delete remote file after successfully downloading it.

     -R      Recursive mode; copy whole directory trees.

     -T      Do  not use automatic on-the-fly TAR mode for downloading whole di-
	     rectory trees.  ncftpget uses TAR whenever possible since this usu-
	     ally preserves symbolic links and file permissions.  TAR  mode  can
	     also  result  in  faster  transfers for directories containing many
	     small files, since a single data connection can be used rather than
	     an FTP data connection for each small file.  The downside to  using
	     TAR  is  that it forces downloading of the whole directory, even if
	     you had previously downloaded a portion of it earlier, so	you  may
	     want  to use this option if you want to resume downloading of a di-
	     rectory.

     -r XX   Redial a maximum of XX times until  connected  to	the  remote  FTP
	     server.

     -b      Run  in  background  (by  submitting  a batch job and then spawning
	     ncftpbatch).

     -bb     Similar to -b option, but only submits the  batch	job.   You  will
	     need  to run ncftpbatch for the batch job to be processed.  This is
	     useful if you already have a ncftpbatch process running, or wish to
	     have better control of when batch jobs are processed.

	     For example, if you wanted to do  background  processing  of  three
	     files  all on the same remote server, it is more polite to use just
	     one ncftpbatch process to	process  the  three  jobs  sequentially,
	     rather than having three ncftpbatch processes open three simultane-
	     ous FTP sessions to the same server.

     -B XX   Try setting the TCP/IP socket buffer size to XX bytes.

     -W XX   Send raw FTP command XX after logging in.

     -X XX   Send raw FTP command XX after each file transferred.

     -Y XX   Send raw FTP command XX before logging out.

	     The  -W,  -X, and -Y options are useful for advanced users who need
	     to tweak behavior on some servers.  For  example,	users  accessing
	     mainframes  might	need  to  send some special SITE commands to set
	     blocksize and record format information.

	     For these options, you can use them multiple times each if you need
	     to send multiple commands.  For the -X  option,  you  can	use  the
	     cookie %s to expand into the name of the file that was transferred.

     -o XX   Set advanced option XX.

	     This  option is used primarily for debugging.  It sets the value of
	     an internal variable to an integer value.	An example  usage  would
	     be:  -o useFEAT=0,useCLNT=1 which in this case, disables use of the
	     FEAT command and enables the CLNT command.  The available variables
	     include: usePASV, useSIZE, useMDTM, useREST, useNLST_a,  useNLST_d,
	     useFEAT,  useMLSD,  useMLST,  useCLNT, useHELP_SITE, useSITE_UTIME,
	     STATfileParamWorks, NLSTfileParamWorks,  require20,  allowProxyFor-
	     PORT, doNotGetStartCWD.

DESCRIPTION
     The purpose of ncftpget is to do file transfers from the command-line with-
     out  entering  an	interactive shell.  This lets you write shell scripts or
     other unattended processes that can do FTP.  It is also useful for advanced
     users who want to retrieve files from the shell command line without enter-
     ing an interactive FTP program such as ncftp.

     One particularly useful feature of this program is that you can give  it  a
     uniform resource locator as the only argument and the program will download
     that file.  You can then copy and paste from your web browser or newsreader
     and use that URL.	Example:

	 $ cd /tmp
	 $ ncftpget ftp://ftp.ncftp.com/pub/ncftp/ncftp.tar.Z
	 $ zcat ncftp.tar.Z | tar xf -

     By default the program tries to open the remote host and login anonymously,
     but  you can specify a username and password information.	The -u option is
     used to specify the username to login as, and the	-p  option  is	used  to
     specify  the  password.  If you are running the program from the shell, you
     may omit the -p option and the program will prompt you for the password.

     Using the -u and -p options are not recommended, because your  account  in-
     formation	is  exposed  to  anyone  who  can  see your shell script or your
     process information.  For example, someone using the ps program  could  see
     your password while the program runs.

     You may use the -f option instead to specify a file with the account infor-
     mation.   However, this is still not secure because anyone who has read ac-
     cess to the information file can see the  account	information.   Neverthe-
     less,  if	you  choose  to use the -f option the file should look something
     like this:

	 host sphygmomanometer.ncftp.com
	 user gleason
	 pass mypasswd

     Don't forget to change the permissions on this file so no one else can read
     them.

     The -d option is very useful when you are trying to  diagnose  why  a  file
     transfer is failing.  It prints out the entire FTP conversation to the file
     you specify, so you can get an idea of what went wrong.  If you specify the
     special  name  stdout  as the name of the debugging output file, the output
     will instead print to the screen.	Example:

	 $ ncftpget -d stdout bowser.nintendo.co.jp . /pub/README
	 220: FTP server ready.
	 Connected to bowser.nintendo.co.jp.
	 Cmd: USER anonymous
	 331: Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
	 Cmd: PASS xxxxxxxx
	 230: Welcome!
	 Logged in to bowser.nintendo.co.jp as anonymous.
	 Cmd: TYPE I
	 200: Type set to I.
	 Cmd: PORT 192,168,9,37,6,76
	 200: PORT command successful.
	 Cmd: RETR /pub/README
	 550: /pub/README: File in use.
	 Cmd: QUIT
	 221: Goodbye.

     Using ASCII mode is helpful when the text format of your host differs  from
     that  of  the  remote host.  For example, if you are retrieving a .TXT file
     from a Windows-based host to a UNIX system, you could use the -a flag which
     would use ASCII transfer mode so that the file created on the  UNIX  system
     would be in the UNIX text format instead of the MS-DOS text format.

     You  can  retrieve  an entire directory tree of files by using the -R flag.
     However, this will work only if the remote FTP server is a UNIX server,  or
     emulates UNIX's list output.  Example:

	 $ ncftpget -R ftp.ncftp.com /tmp /pub/ncftp

     This would create a /tmp/ncftp hierarchy.

DIAGNOSTICS
     ncftpget returns the following exit values:

     0	     Success.

     1	     Could not connect to remote host.

     2	     Could not connect to remote host - timed out.

     3	     Transfer failed.

     4	     Transfer failed - timed out.

     5	     Directory change failed.

     6	     Directory change failed - timed out.

     7	     Malformed URL.

     8	     Usage error.

     9	     Error in login configuration file.

     10      Library initialization failed.

     11      Session initialization failed.

AUTHOR
     Mike Gleason, NcFTP Software (http://www.ncftp.com).

SEE ALSO
     ncftpput(1), ncftp(1), ftp(1), rcp(1), tftp(1).

     LibNcFTP (http://www.ncftp.com/libncftp/).

ncftpget			 NcFTP Software 		     ncftpget(1)

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