TheLinuxGurus.org: FTP In One Easy Lesson

[ Thanks to David Culp
for this link. ]

“FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is a method to allow
the transferring of files from one system to another. When you use
an ftp client you are are simply running a program that knows the
ftp protocol and communicates with another program (called a server
or ftpd). Most people are familiar with graphical FTP clients
that let you click and drag files from one machine to another, we
will not learn about GUI ftp clients, we will learn about running
ftp from the command line.“

“Why should you learn to use ftp from the command line? In
todays age of Graphical User Interfaces why would you actually want
or need to type commands into a terminal. There are actually many
reasons why you should learn to use ftp, and many other programs,
from the command line. I will outline a few situations where ftp
from the command line makes more sense than firing up that GUI ftp
client.”

“Imagine, if you will, that you have just purchased a brand new,
state of the art 3D graphics accelerator. You get it home, crack
open your case, throw the video card in and fire up Linux. You then
try to install the drivers, only to realize you do not have
drivers, however you know where to get them, from an ftp site. If
you do not know how to run ftp from the command line you will be
forced to reboot and reopen the case ,install the old card and get
the drivers. After that you must then install the new card, for the
second time. If you know how to manage an ftp connection from the
command line then all you have to do is fire up your ppp
connection, grab and install the drivers and you are on your
way.”

Complete
Story