ftp_get

bob at notallhere dot com (2013-04-03 17:50:01)

Don't want to use an intermediate file? Use 'php://output' as the filename and then capture the output using output buffering.
ob_start();
$result = ftp_get($ftp, "php://output", $file, FTP_BINARY);
$data = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
Don't forget to check $result to make sure there wasn't an error. After that, manipulate the $data variable however you want.

miki at epoch dot co dot il (2012-12-23 09:32:24)

If you ran the example and see that it fail after 90sec (timeout).

Then try adding:
<?php
ftp_pasv($ftp_conn, true);
?>

Sven Helleland (2012-01-31 03:21:39)

Please note that the "The remote file path." does not necessarily mean the full server path. If you have created normal user accounts that has been locked into the website folder, you need to enter the remainder of the path.
Example:
If you are getting an image that is located in:
/home/website/public_html/images/image.jpg
And you have locked the user into: /home/website/
Then the path you should pass along when fetching the file is:
public_html/images/image.jpg

Ben Parish (2012-01-26 13:14:37)

On Windows (and possibly *NIX) you will get "[function.ftp-get]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in..." errors if the local_file path contains directory paths that do not already exist.
Even with write permissions ftp_get can create the file but it will NOT automatically create the parent directories as you might expect.

danny at ingeniarte dot com (2010-11-25 15:37:47)

Remember to use the full server paths to the directories you are working on. Server paths are not the same as "ftp paths".
I was using the path displayed on my FTP client to download and upload files and I kept getting "Not found" or "Permission Denied" errors.

CuDi (2009-10-22 19:50:20)

I tried to ftp a 7mb file today off my webserver.

I copied this example directly and it told me.

Port command successful
"there was a problem"

I thought it was because of the size.
But I guessed it might be cause of my firewall.

So I made the ftp connection passive:

<?PHP
  
  ...
  $login_result = ftp_login($conn_id, $ftp_user_name, $ftp_user_pass);
  ftp_pasv($conn_id, true);

?>

Ran the script again & it worked fine.

Hope this helps someone

mroerick at gmx dot net (2009-05-15 12:42:37)

ftp_sync is a way to walk the directory structure on the server and copy every directory and file to the same location locally.

<?php
$ftp_server = "ftp.example.com";
$conn_id = ftp_connect ($ftp_server)
    or die("Couldn't connect to $ftp_server"); 
    
$login_result = ftp_login($conn_id, "user", "pass");
if ((!$conn_id) || (!$login_result))
    die("FTP Connection Failed");

ftp_sync ("DirectoryToCopy");    // Use "." if you are in the current directory

ftp_close($conn_id);  

// ftp_sync - Copy directory and file structure
function ftp_sync ($dir) {

    global $conn_id;

    if ($dir != ".") {
        if (ftp_chdir($conn_id, $dir) == false) {
            echo ("Change Dir Failed: $dir<BR>\r\n");
            return;
        }
        if (!(is_dir($dir)))
            mkdir($dir);
        chdir ($dir);
    }

    $contents = ftp_nlist($conn_id, ".");
    foreach ($contents as $file) {
    
        if ($file == '.' || $file == '..')
            continue;
        
        if (@ftp_chdir($conn_id, $file)) {
            ftp_chdir ($conn_id, "..");
            ftp_sync ($file);
        }
        else
            ftp_get($conn_id, $file, $file, FTP_BINARY);
    }
        
    ftp_chdir ($conn_id, "..");
    chdir ("..");

}
?>

w dot danford at electronics-software dot com (2008-11-10 14:06:59)

A subtle issue with the ftp_get() function. The second param, string $local_file, is a file name on the SERVER running the php script. It is NOT a file on the client machine running the browser. I erroneously tried to use this ftp to download a file from my site to my local system. I entered the full path starting with the drive letter ("h:/...") on a system running WIN XP and kept getting a failure of unable to open (destination) file. Only after just putting in a file name with no pathing did I see where the file was written. It was in the directory on my site where the php script is located (hosting is managed shared LAMP server which supports multiple url's, GoDaddy hosting).

Nate from ruggfamily.com (2008-10-22 14:12:21)

Here's a quick function that figures out the correct mode to use based on a file's extension.

<?php
function get_ftp_mode($file)
{    
    $path_parts = pathinfo($file);
    
    if (!isset($path_parts['extension'])) return FTP_BINARY;
    switch (strtolower($path_parts['extension'])) {
        case 'am':case 'asp':case 'bat':case 'c':case 'cfm':case 'cgi':case 'conf':
        case 'cpp':case 'css':case 'dhtml':case 'diz':case 'h':case 'hpp':case 'htm':
        case 'html':case 'in':case 'inc':case 'js':case 'm4':case 'mak':case 'nfs':
        case 'nsi':case 'pas':case 'patch':case 'php':case 'php3':case 'php4':case 'php5':
        case 'phtml':case 'pl':case 'po':case 'py':case 'qmail':case 'sh':case 'shtml':
        case 'sql':case 'tcl':case 'tpl':case 'txt':case 'vbs':case 'xml':case 'xrc':
            return FTP_ASCII;
    }
    return FTP_BINARY;
}

// sample usage
ftp_get($conn_id, $local_file, $server_file, get_ftp_mode($server_file));
?>

Aditya P dot Bhatt (adityabhai at gmail dot com) (2008-03-25 03:40:21)

<?php
                // define some variables
        $folder_path = "YOUR FOLDER PATH"; 
        $local_file = "LOCAL FILE PATH";
        $server_file = "SERVER FILE PATH";
        
        //-- Connection Settings
        $ftp_server = "IP ADDRESS"; // Address of FTP server.
        $ftp_user_name = "USERNAME"; // Username
        $ftp_user_pass = "PASSWORD"; // Password
        #$destination_file = "FILEPATH"; 
        
        // set up basic connection
        $conn_id = ftp_connect($ftp_server);
        
        // login with username and password
        $login_result = ftp_login($conn_id, $ftp_user_name, $ftp_user_pass);
        
        // try to download $server_file and save to $local_file
        if (ftp_get($conn_id, $local_file, $server_file, FTP_BINARY)) {
            echo "Successfully written to $local_file\n";
        } else {
            echo "There was a problem\n";
        }
        
        // close the connection
        ftp_close($conn_id);
?>

anomie at users dot sf dot net (2007-01-30 07:24:10)

Crud. The _nb_ only refers to reading from the ftp server, and the buffer in the socket pair is only about 364 bytes. So it doesn't work for files larger than that size.

anomie at users dot sf dot net (2007-01-25 09:50:00)

Why there isn't an "ftp_get_contents" function, I don't know. It takes a little work to emulate one, but it's doable.
<?php
function ftp_get_contents($ftp_stream, $remote_file, $mode, $resume_pos=null){
    $pipes=stream_socket_pair(STREAM_PF_UNIX, STREAM_SOCK_STREAM, STREAM_IPPROTO_IP);
    if($pipes===false) return false;
    if(!stream_set_blocking($pipes[1], 0)){
        fclose($pipes[0]); fclose($pipes[1]);
        return false;
    }
    $fail=false;
    $data='';
    if(is_null($resume_pos)){
        $ret=ftp_nb_fget($ftp_stream, $pipes[0], $remote_file, $mode);
    } else {
        $ret=ftp_nb_fget($ftp_stream, $pipes[0], $remote_file, $mode, $resume_pos);
    }
    while($ret==FTP_MOREDATA){
        while(!$fail && !feof($pipes[1])){
            $r=fread($pipes[1], 8192);
            if($r==='') break;
            if($r===false){ $fail=true; break; }
            $data.=$r;
        }
        $ret=ftp_nb_continue($ftp_stream);
    }
    while(!$fail && !feof($pipes[1])){
        $r=fread($pipes[1], 8192);
        if($r==='') break;
        if($r===false){ $fail=true; break; }
        $data.=$r;
    }
    fclose($pipes[0]); fclose($pipes[1]);
    if($fail || $ret!=FTP_FINISHED) return false;
    return $data;
}
?>

Something similar would work to write a ftp_put_contents function, too.

administrator at gesoft dot org (2006-08-12 15:05:24)

Hello everybody,

If someone will try to download files to the same local file (some temporary file), like shown here:

<?php
foreach ($files as $key=>$path) {
... 
  $result = ftp_get($ftpConnId, 'temp.tmp', $path, FTP_BINARY);
...
}
?>

please take in consideration the fact that you will have big problems with downloading (getting) hole files. In other words ‘temp.tmp’ file always will have the same size equal to first downloaded file despite the real size of downloading file. I have not idea what is the reason!

If someone will think that problem is just in getting proper file size (which you will get using filssize() function) he will be mistaken. The download file’s size is not equal to source file’s size materially, that means fflush() function will not solve the problem (I have tried this as well).

Finally the solution was founded: before downloading a file you will need to delete local file if such exist (‘temp.tmp’). So working code will look like:

<?php
foreach ($files as $key=>$path) {
... 
  if (file_exists('temp.tmp')) {
    unlink('temp.tmp');
  }
  $result = ftp_get($ftpConnId, 'temp.tmp', $path, FTP_BINARY);
...
}
?>

Good luck in scripting :-)

Vitali Simsive

corey-holzer at nyc dot rr dot com (2004-01-23 06:20:59)

The zero size file is not a side effect. When the ftp_get starts the first thing it does is to create the inode/file which it will stream the data too and that is a zero size file with the nname you specified for the local file. When the download fails it leaves the file in place.

thivierr at telus dot net (2003-11-22 14:25:53)

If you previously downloaded a file before (like a huge web log), and just want to get the remaining portion, do this:
$local_file_size = filesize($local_file_path);
$get_result = ftp_get($conn_id, $local_file_path, $remote_file_path, FTP_BINARY, $local_file_size);
This same code works regardless of wether the local file exists already or not. You should first test to make sure the local file is not bigger than the remote file.

ramiro at qusarcr dot com (2002-11-06 07:36:05)

Keep in mind that ftp_get will overwrite the file on your local machine if it has the same name.