ncftp: Recursive File Get

A while ago I wrote a post about using the basic ftp command to recursively fetch remote FTP files, it seems this doesn’t completely fetch them recursively. A great little program called NCFTP will do this accurate and pretty quickly. Install NCFTP if you haven’t already, then run the program:

ncftp

This will give you a prompt, at which type the following:

set save-passwords yes

Which will allow the program to save your password while its working and transferring files. Open a connection to your FTP server by using the following at the command prompt:

open -u ftp_username ftp_host

It’ll ask for a password, enter it and then it’ll go away and connect. To then download your files recursively, enter the command:

bgget -r file/path

and once you’ve finished queuing files, type:

bgstart

to begin the transfer and NCFTP will go ahead and download all your queued files.