How to upload (FTP) files to server in a Bash script

To create a script copies files from a local machine to a remote FTP server, you can use the ftp command in a Bash script. Here's how you can write a script that copies a file or multiple files to the remote FTP server:

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Create the Bash Script

1. Open Terminal on your Mac.
2. Create a new script file (e.g., ftp_upload.sh):

nano ftp_upload.sh

3. Add the following content to the script. Replace the placeholder values with your FTP server details and file paths.

#!/bin/bash

# Variables
FTP_SERVER="ftp.example.com"       # Replace with your FTP server address
FTP_USER="your_username"           # Replace with your FTP username
FTP_PASS="your_password"           # Replace with your FTP password
LOCAL_DIR="/remote/uploads"        # Replace with the local directory path
REMOTE_DIR="/Users/yourusername/Documents/files"   # Replace with the remote directory on the server

# FTP upload function
upload_files() {
    ftp -inv $FTP_SERVER <<EOF
    user $FTP_USER $FTP_PASS
    binary                  # Use binary mode for file transfer
    cd $REMOTE_DIR          # Change to the remote directory
$(for file in "$LOCAL_DIR"/*; do
    echo "put $file"         # Upload each file
done)
    bye                     # Exit the FTP session
EOF
}

# Check if the local directory exists
if [ -d "$LOCAL_DIR" ]; then
    echo "Uploading files from $LOCAL_DIR to $FTP_SERVER..."
    upload_files
    echo "Upload complete."
else
    echo "Error: Local directory $LOCAL_DIR does not exist."
fi

Step 2: Make the Script Executable

After saving the script, make it executable by running the following command in Terminal:

chmod +x ftp_upload.sh

Step 3: Run the Script

Run the script to upload the files:

./ftp_upload.sh

Step 4: Example Usage

Suppose you want to upload files from your local directory /Users/yourusername/Documents/files to the remote FTP directory /remote/uploads, you would edit the script like this:

FTP_SERVER="ftp.example.com"
FTP_USER="your_username"
FTP_PASS="your_password"
REMOTE_DIR="/remote/uploads"
LOCAL_DIR="/Users/yourusername/Documents/files"

After saving the script and making it executable, run:

./ftp_upload.sh

This will upload all files in the files directory to the /remote/uploads directory on your FTP server.