- ftp - starts an FTP session
- open hostname - connects to the specified host
- close - closes the connection (but not the FTP session!)
- quit - terminates the FTP session
II. Browsing on a remote machine
- dir - gives a full directory listing on the remote machine
- dir test* - displays only files and directories whose name begins with "test..."
- ls - same as dir, but provides a simplified listing of filenames
III. Directories in FTP
- pwd - prints the name of the current remote directory
- cd remote-directory - changes working directory on remote host
- cd .. - moves up one level in the directory structure on the remote host
- lcd directory - changes the default directory on local host
IV. Types of files
- binary - type this command at the FTP prompt to
set binary mode before
transferring binary files -
For example, use binary mode with the following types of files:
- SPSS System files
- SAS Transport files
- Stata Datasets
- Graphics files (e.g., *.gif, *.jpg, *.bmp, etc.)
- Microsoft Office documents (*.doc, *.xls, etc.)
-
ascii - type this command at the FTP prompt to
set ASCII mode before
transferring text files. -
Use the ASCII mode with any of the following:
- Raw Data (e.g. *.dat or *.txt, codebooks, or other plain text documents)
- SPSS Portable files
- HTML files
V. Transferring files
- get test - copies file "test" from remote to
local host (from current remote
directory to current local directory) -
mget test.* data.dbf - copies files beginning
with "test" and the file named
from remote to local host -
put test - copies file "test" from local to
remote host. You must have write
access to the remove host for this to work. -
mput test.* data.dbf - copies files beginning
with "test" and the file named
data.dbf from local to remote host - quit - closes connection and terminates FTP session
-
If a file name contains spaces (e.g. on your Windows system) you
should
type the file name in quotation marks " ", but it is strongly recommended
to rename such files before FTPing them.
VI. Other Commands
- get test "| more" - displays file "test"
To make sure you want a document, you can display it with the more command
and see the file screen by screen (using the space bar) BEFORE you get a file.
To exit out of more , type q. -
prompt - turns off prompting for individual
files when strong using the mget or
mput commands. - If you have mistyped your username or password, use the user command to re-login.
- For a list of all FTP commands type ? at the ftp> prompt.
-
For a brief explanation of a command, type help,
leave a space, and type the
command itself.

