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I'm using Ubuntu Software Center 2.0.7, and I would like to copy a file from this machine over FTP. Can you please help me how to do it?

I know in Windows I just open a Windows Explorer window and type ftp.www.mysite.com. Then it will ask for the user name and password.

I would like to do the same in my Ubuntu Linux, but I don't know how.

Peter Mortensen
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tintincutes
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2 Answers2

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The easiest way to do this would be to open a terminal and use wget:

$ wget ftp://ftp.mysite.com/path/to/file

You need to replace "path/to/file/ with the path of the file you want to download. That is, the address where the file is found on the disk. So, to get a file called file.txt that is in sub directory foo of directory bar, you would write:

$ wget ftp://ftp.mysite.com/foo/bar/file.txt

If your ftp server requires a username and password:

$ wget ftp://username:password@ftp.mysite.com/foo/bar/file.txt

Replacing "username" and "password" with your actual username and password. Do not include the $ in any of these commands.

From the wget man page:

GNU Wget is a free utility for non-interactive download of files from the Web. It supports HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP protocols, as well as retrieval through HTTP proxies.

You can also use ftp from the command line:

$ ftp ftp.mysite.com

Enter your user name and password, then use put to upload the file:

ftp>put local_file remote_file

For example:

ftp>put Downloads/List/Song.mp3 Song.mp3

Do not include the ftp> in your command. That just indicates the ftp prompt.

Finally, you either use a normal browser (eg firefox) or install a graphical ftp client. My personal favorite is gftp:

$ sudo apt-get install gftp

Oh, and you are not using Ubuntu Software Center 2.0.7. That is just Ubuntu's software management app.

Note on terminology

When a terminal command is given, the symbol $ is used to indicate that it is a terminal command. See here for a discussion. It is not part of the actuall command. So, to tell you to run the command ls, I would write $ ls. You, however, should only type ls, without the $.

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terdon
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  • Thanks for the 3 suggestions. I tried the first one, I opened the terminal and it says: "name@ubuntu@desktop: ~ $" then I entered "$ wget ftp://ftp.mysite.com/path/to/file" it says Login incorrect. Do I need to include the "/path/to/file" I don't understand this bit. Thanks – tintincutes Aug 26 '12 at 15:39
  • I'm wondering how to copy it to the ftp server if it's in the root. Can I write it like this: "ftp> get /Downloads/FolderA/Song.mp3/to/root" – tintincutes Aug 26 '12 at 15:47
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    @tintincutes Sorry, I forgot you are new to Linux. I have updated my anwer. – terdon Aug 26 '12 at 15:54
  • Thanks. But I always get a message not a directory. Am I doing something wrong? – tintincutes Aug 26 '12 at 16:03
  • @tintincutes using which command? Since you are not comfortable with the terminal, why don't you use firefox? Or, better, install gftp? – terdon Aug 26 '12 at 16:05
  • Thanks a for the edit message. Btw, I used your 2nd suggestion and not the first one because it was quite difficult.So I opened my command line and I got to the point "User "user" logged. Remote system type is Unix. Using Binary mode to transfer files." I just wanted to upload the file from the linux machine to my ftp server. Is that possible? – tintincutes Aug 26 '12 at 16:07
  • @tintincutes Use the graphical ftp client (`sudo apt-get install gftp; gftp`. Anyway, I updated the answer to include the `put` command. – terdon Aug 26 '12 at 16:18
  • let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/4635/discussion-between-terdon-and-tintincutes) – terdon Aug 26 '12 at 16:21
  • I'm on the chatroom you created. Are you still there? – tintincutes Aug 26 '12 at 17:20
  • Correct me if I'm wrong but `wget username:password@ftp://ftp.mysite.com/foo/bar/file.txt` should read `wget ftp://username:password@ftp.mysite.com/foo/bar/file.txt` – notbrain Apr 06 '15 at 18:15
  • @Brian d'oh! Of course it should, thanks for pointing it out. Answer edited. – terdon Apr 06 '15 at 18:24
  • Does it automatically use passive transfer mode? – Peter Mortensen Jun 01 '16 at 18:21
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In Nautilus or Firefox, you can input in the address bar:

ftp://username@ftp.server.com
laurent
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