There's nothing wrong with using a .netrc to avoid the need to supply a ftp password in the script if you are comfortable with using ftp and its security risks in the first place.

For a .netrc file to work it MUST be (1) residing in the home directory of the user under which the script (or cron job) is running, and (2) MUST be owned by that user, and (3) MUST have access rights so that only that user can read/write the file (typically '600').

Records in the file MUST be formatted correctly like:

Code:

machine <nodename> login <userid> password <passwd>

So an actual record might look like:

Code:

machine fred login joe password smith

if the ftp nodename is fred, the userid is joe and the password is smith.

Then when ftp is called:

$ ftp fred

ftp will first lookup the node 'fred' in /etc/hosts (or any other resolution method available) to retrieve an ip address. If that is successful ftp looks for a .netrc file in the script users home directory. If it finds .netrc it will retrieve userid/password combination for 'fred' (if it exists) and use it to make the ftp connection.

It's dead easy to see if this is working. Login as the user and interactively issue the command:

$ ftp <nodename>

and if .netrc is configured correctly it will connect instantly without requesting userid, password or anything.