11.4.1 FTP Objects

FTP instances have the following methods:

set_debuglevel (level)

Set the instance's debugging level. This controls the amount of debugging output printed. The default, 0, produces no debugging output. A value of 1 produces a moderate amount of debugging output, generally a single line per request. A value of 2 or higher produces the maximum amount of debugging output, logging each line sent and received on the control connection.

connect (host[, port])

Connect to the given host and port. The default port number is 21, as specified by the FTP protocol specification. It is rarely needed to specify a different port number. This function should be called only once for each instance; it should not be called at all if a host was given when the instance was created. All other methods can only be used after a connection has been made.

getwelcome ()

Return the welcome message sent by the server in reply to the initial connection. (This message sometimes contains disclaimers or help information that may be relevant to the user.)

login ([user[, passwd[, acct]]])

Log in as the given user. The passwd and acct parameters are optional and default to the empty string. If no user is specified, it defaults to 'anonymous'. If user is anonymous, the default passwd is "realuser@host" where realuser is the real user name (glanced from the $LOGNAME or $USER environment variable) and host is the hostname as returned by socket.gethostname(). This function should be called only once for each instance, after a connection has been established; it should not be called at all if a host and user were given when the instance was created. Most FTP commands are only allowed after the client has logged in.

abort ()

Abort a file transfer that is in progress. Using this does not always work, but it's worth a try.

sendcmd (command)

Send a simple command string to the server and return the response string.

voidcmd (command)

Send a simple command string to the server and handle the response. Return nothing if a response code in the range 200-299 is received. Raise an exception otherwise.

retrbinary (command, callback[, maxblocksize])

Retrieve a file in binary transfer mode. command should be an appropriate "RETR" command, i.e. 'RETR filename'. The callback function is called for each block of data received, with a single string argument giving the data block. The optional maxblocksize argument specifies the maximum chunk size to read on the low-level socket object created to do the actual transfer (which will also be the largest size of the data blocks passed to callback). A reasonable default is chosen.

retrlines (command[, callback])

Retrieve a file or directory listing in ASCII transfer mode. command should be an appropriate "RETR" command (see retrbinary() or a "LIST" command (usually just the string 'LIST'). The callback function is called for each line, with the trailing CRLF stripped. The default callback prints the line to sys.stdout.

storbinary (command, file, blocksize)

Store a file in binary transfer mode. command should be an appropriate "STOR" command, i.e. "STOR filename". file is an open file object which is read until EOF using its read() method in blocks of size blocksize to provide the data to be stored.

storlines (command, file)

Store a file in ASCII transfer mode. command should be an appropriate "STOR" command (see storbinary()). Lines are read until EOF from the open file object file using its readline() method to privide the data to be stored.

nlst (argument[, ...])

Return a list of files as returned by the "NLST" command. The optional argument is a directory to list (default is the current server directory). Multiple arguments can be used to pass non-standard options to the "NLST" command.

dir (argument[, ...])

Return a directory listing as returned by the "LIST" command, as a list of lines. The optional argument is a directory to list (default is the current server directory). Multiple arguments can be used to pass non-standard options to the "LIST" command. If the last argument is a function, it is used as a callback function as for retrlines().

rename (fromname, toname)

Rename file fromname on the server to toname.

cwd (pathname)

Set the current directory on the server.

mkd (pathname)

Create a new directory on the server.

pwd ()

Return the pathname of the current directory on the server.

quit ()

Send a "QUIT" command to the server and close the connection. This is the ``polite'' way to close a connection, but it may raise an exception of the server reponds with an error to the "QUIT" command.

close ()

Close the connection unilaterally. This should not be applied to an already closed connection (e.g. after a successful call to quit().