:mod:`ftplib` --- FTP protocol client

This module defines the class :class:`FTP` and a few related items. The :class:`FTP` class implements the client side of the FTP protocol. You can use this to write Python programs that perform a variety of automated FTP jobs, such as mirroring other ftp servers. It is also used by the module :mod:`urllib.request` to handle URLs that use FTP. For more information on FTP (File Transfer Protocol), see Internet RFC 959.

Here's a sample session using the :mod:`ftplib` module:

>>> from ftplib import FTP
>>> ftp = FTP('ftp.cwi.nl')   # connect to host, default port
>>> ftp.login()               # user anonymous, passwd anonymous@
>>> ftp.retrlines('LIST')     # list directory contents
total 24418
drwxrwsr-x   5 ftp-usr  pdmaint     1536 Mar 20 09:48 .
dr-xr-srwt 105 ftp-usr  pdmaint     1536 Mar 21 14:32 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp-usr  pdmaint     5305 Mar 20 09:48 INDEX
 .
 .
 .
>>> ftp.retrbinary('RETR README', open('README', 'wb').write)
'226 Transfer complete.'
>>> ftp.quit()

The module defines the following items:

Return a new instance of the :class:`FTP` class. When host is given, the method call connect(host) is made. When user is given, additionally the method call login(user, passwd, acct) is made (where passwd and acct default to the empty string when not given). The optional timeout parameter specifies a timeout in seconds for blocking operations like the connection attempt (if is not specified, the global default timeout setting will be used).

FTP Objects

Several methods are available in two flavors: one for handling text files and another for binary files. These are named for the command which is used followed by lines for the text version or binary for the binary version.

:class:`FTP` instances have the following methods: