FTP

connect and login

mkdir gnu # for download ftp -p ftp.gnu.org # -p is passive mode, required by some firewalls # if prompted login as anonymous or ftp # some anonymous sites request a password, usually an email address, null OK # you should then see the ftp> prompt

navigation

ls # remote list files cd gnu # remote change directory, Free Software Foundation files here pwd # remote print working directory lcd gnu # local change directory ls # too many files for one screen ls =* # specify files with a wildcard ls . gnu-dir # save directory listing to local file gnu-dir ls . |less # pipe directory listing to local command less (no space after |) q # (quit less with when done)

switches

binary # image (not ASCII) file type prompt # turns off interactive prompting for multiple file transfers system # shows remote operating system type

download

get =README # download remote file =README to local current directory get =README README # download to a different local filename get =README - # download to local standard output get ProgramIndex |less # download to local command less q # quit less when done # recv is a synonym for get # use put or send to upload # use mget followed by a wildcard to download multiple files # use mput followed by a wildcard to upload multiple files

escape

!ls # run local command ls (no space after !)

download source code

cd hello # directory for a simple application dir # synonym for ls get hello-2.12.1.tar.gz # download compressed archive (C programming example)

exit

quit # or bye or Ctrl+d, exit ftp

uncompress and extract

cd gnu ls -l gunzip hello-2.12.1.tar.gz # uncompress .gz file # use bunzip2 for .bz2 files # use unxz for .xz files ls -l # original .gz file gone tar xf hello-2.12.1.tar # extract files from .tar archive # x is extract ( must be first option) # f is file (must be last option) # other options go between x and f ls -l # files were extracted to directory hello-2.12.1 rm hello-2.12.1.tar # clean up

build and install application

cd hello-2.10 ls # lots here less src/hello.c # look at the source code (if you're a C programmer) q # quit less when done less INSTALL # read the directions q # quit less when done ./configure --prefix=$PWD # prepare a Makefile which suits your system # --prefix specifies directory for install make # build application make install # install application ls bin/ # the executable is here ls doc/ # documentation is here (newer Gnu software doesn't use man pages)

run application

./bin/hello # execute hello echo $LANG # LANG defines the language as language_country LANG=fr_FR # fr_FR is French language, as spoken in France ./bin/hello # output in French ./bin/hello -x # error messages also in French LANG=en_US # reset to US English info -f doc/hello.info # -f (file) option for non-standard location # use arrow keys to scroll up and down q # quit info cd

other download tools

sftp

uses ssh connection and ftp commands for secure file transfer

curl, wget

non-interactive UNIX tools which can download files from web servers using HTTP or HTTPS

rsync

copies files to/from remote hosts, can copy only differences for better speed

example (written on a single line):
rsync -av --delete-after mirrors.kernel.org:: slackware/slackware64-15.0/patches/packages/ ~/slack64-15.0/patches

uses :: for rsync daemon, : for SSH daemon