Python FTP Login

When working with files over an FTP server, it is necessary to establish a connection and authenticate with login credentials. Python provides the ftplib module for working with FTP in your programs. This tutorial will guide you through the steps required to login to an FTP server using Python.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.x installed on your system
• Access to an FTP server with login credentials

Establishing a Connection

To begin, we need to establish a connection with the FTP server. We will use the FTP class from ftplib module to interact with the server. Here is an example code snippet to connect to an FTP server:

import ftplib

ftp = ftplib.FTP('ftp.example.com')
ftp.login('username', 'password')

In the above example, we have established a connection with an FTP server at ftp.example.com. We then use the login method of the FTP class to authenticate with the username and password.

Listing Files

Once we have established a connection, we can list the files and directories on the server using the nlst() method. Here is an example code snippet to list files on the server:

import ftplib

ftp = ftplib.FTP('ftp.example.com')
ftp.login('username', 'password')

files = ftp.nlst()
for file in files:
    print(file)

In the above example, we use the nlst method of the FTP class to list the files and directories on the server. We then iterate over the list and print each item.

Downloading Files

We can download files from the FTP server using the retrbinary() method of the FTP class. Here is an example code snippet to download a file from the server:

import ftplib

ftp = ftplib.FTP('ftp.example.com')
ftp.login('username', 'password')

filename = 'example.txt'
with open(filename, 'wb') as f:
    ftp.retrbinary('RETR ' + filename, f.write)

In the above example, we use the retrbinary method of the FTP class to download the file example.txt from the server. We open a file in binary write mode and write the contents of the downloaded file to it.

Uploading Files

We can upload files to the FTP server using the storbinary() method of the FTP class. Here is an example code snippet to upload a file to the server:

import ftplib

ftp = ftplib.FTP('ftp.example.com')
ftp.login('username', 'password')

filename = 'example.txt'
with open(filename, 'rb') as f:
    ftp.storbinary('STOR ' + filename, f)

In the above example, we use the storbinary method of the FTP class to upload the file example.txt to the server. We open a file in binary read mode and upload the contents to the server.

Closing the Connection

Once we are done with our operations on the FTP server, we should close the connection using the quit() method of the FTP class. Here is an example code snippet to close the connection:

import ftplib

ftp = ftplib.FTP('ftp.example.com')
ftp.login('username', 'password')

# Perform operations on the server

ftp.quit()

In the above example, we use the quit method of the FTP class to close the connection with the server.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to login to an FTP server using Python. We also learned how to list files, download files, upload files, and close the connection. These are the fundamental operations required to work with files over an FTP server in your programs.