Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi Everyone,

Based on what I have read so far and what others have posted on this forum, I have come up with the following script to download and upload files from and to a FTP sever:

Code:

HOST=xyz.com
USER=someuser
PASSWD=somepwd

tmpfile=/tmp/files.$$

indir=/tmp/inbound
outdir=/tmp/outbound
inholddir=/tmp/inhold

ls $outdir/*.xml > $tmpfile 2>/dev/null

exec 4>&1
ftp -nv >&4 2>&1 |&

print -p open $HOST
print -p user $USER $PASSWD
print -p ascii
print -p prompt off

if [[ -s $tmpfile ]]
then
  print -p cd Upload
  cat $tmpfile 2>/dev/null | while read xml_file
  do
    print -p put $xml_file
    rm -f $xml_file
  done
  print -p cd ..
fi

print -p cd Download
print -p lcd $inholddir
print -p mget *.xml
ls $inholddir/*.xml > $tmpfile 2>/dev/null
if [[ -s $tmpfile ]]
then 
  cat $tmpfile 2>/dev/null | awk -F "/" '{print $NF}' | while read xml_file
  do
    print -p delete $xml_file
    mv -f $inholddir/$xml_file $indir
  done
fi

rm -f $tmpfile

print -p bye
wait
exit 0

As you can see, after I perform "mget", I am trying to get a list of the XML files that were downloaded so that I can delete them from the remote FTP server and move them to the $indir on the local server. However, the "ls $inholddir/*.xml > $tmpfile 2>/dev/null" command generates no output even though files were sucessfully downloaded and are present in the $inholddir directory. I am not sure why. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

PS: The reason I want to get a list of the downloaded files and then delete each file individually is because there is a possibility of new files appearing in the remote "Download" directory while the mget and/or the delete is in process (potential "timing" issue). In such cases, I don't want to delete files that have not been downloaded yet.

for ftp mget to work without a prompt and answer you need: ftp -inv
-i turns off prompting for mput and mget as each file is processed.

Well, the issue I am having is not with the prompting but with getting a list of all the XML files after they were downloaded to the local server using mget. So as soon as mget executes to download lets say 10 files in the $inholddir directory on the local server, I am running this command:

ls $inholddir/*.xml > $tmpfile 2>/dev/null

However, $tmpfile contains nothing even though there are files in the $inholddir (that were downloaded from the remote server).

Any ideas as to why this is happening?

Thanks!