UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I have an ftp process which runs every 10 minutes between Unix and an NT box.

Normally it works, but when the script tries to get a file from NT that has a length of 0, the ftp process hangs (as if it is still waiting for the end of the file).

This is the script

Code:

job_name=vj.${pdate}.${ptime}.$$
ftp_lst=/usr/tmp/${job_name}.ftp.lst
ftp_log=/usr/tmp/${job_name}.ftp.log
ftp_cmd=/usr/tmp/${job_nam}.ftp.cmd

echo "user $username $password" > $ftp_cmd

for file in `cat $ftp_lst`
do
  echo "get $file" >> $ftp_cmd
  echo "delete $file" >> $ftp_cmd
done
echo quit >> $ftp_cmd

ftp -n $host < $ftp_cmd > $ftp_log

Any ideas on why it hangs ?


Thanks

mh.

added code tags for readability --oombera

What is different about the files that have 0 bytes. Check the file permissions. Is it archive or protected. In dos, you can type "help dir |more" and choose the option to view file permissions.

Is the file read only?

Thanks for your help.

I haven't been able to confirm the file permissions yet, because this problem happens infrequently (it happens to screw a lot of things up when it does happen though...).

I did find out though on this version of NT if you use 'get' to retrieve a file that doesn't exist NT creates it for you with filesize=0...So it sounds like that could be the problem.

mh.

That could be your problem.

If you login from NT to UNIX , you should be using "put" to move files FROM NT to UNIX. You should be using "get" to move files FROM UNIX to NT.

If you login from NT to UNIX and then try to use "get" it will try to pull down a file from UNIX to NT. If it doesn't exist, it will generate a 0 byte file!

Try to alter your script to first check to see if files exist before it tries to "get".