Connect to FTP from 🐧 Linux and download files

To connect to the FTP server, we have to type in the terminal window ‘ftp’ and then the domain name ‘domain.com‘ or IP address of the FTP server and port.

ftp example.com 21

you will be asked for username and password, add them when prompted., and you will see the message when logged in successfully:

230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp>

TIP: To connect to FTPS sites use the following command: ftp-ssl -pivz secure “$FTP_HOST” 990

Working with directories

The commands to list, move or create folders on FTP server are the same as on a local shel, ls stands for list, cd to change directories, mkdir to create directories…

Download files with FTP

To dosnlaod files we first need to setup local FTP file download directory using the lcd command:

lcd /home/user/directory_name

after setting up lcd, you can use the get command to download any file over FTP.

get some_file

To download multiple files use wildcards, e.g. to download all files with the .xls file extension.

mget *.xls

Upload files with FTP

To download files we use the put commans:

put some_file

or if not in the local directory

put /path-to/some_file

To uplaod multiple files at once, we use the mput command wildcard:

mput *.xls

Closing FTP connection

To close the FTP connection use one of the following commands:

exit

quite

bye