As with any site, be mindful of the rules, one of which is to use the search function before posting your question. Chances are that someone has already posed your question and that question has most likely already been answered. This is especially true with automated FTP!!
Search method came up with 581 hits on FTP!!
Hint: Use a Here document to automate your FTP.
[edit]
Because I gave this to a similar post, I thought I would be fair....
ftp_func () {
ftp -v -n $TO_HOST << ENDFTP
user $USERNAME $PASSWORD
ascii
prompt off
hash on
lcd $FILE_DIR
get $FILE_NAME
bye
ENDFTP
}
For automating a 1 time job see
man at