simple BASH question about ftp transfer.

I wanted to automate an ftp transfer to my isp. I googled and found this:
http://www.linuxgazette.com/book/print/6140
which is just what I needed. So, I have my ~/.netrc , and I write the script:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
echo This will use a "here" document to embed ftp commands in this script
# Beginning of "here" document
ftp <<**
open ftp.eskimo.com
cd public_html/Images
delete bigpicture.jpg
put bigpicture.jpg
delete newmembers.jpg
put newmembers.jpg
delete thirdwave.jpg
put thirdwave.jpg
delete fourthwave.jpg
put fourthwave.jpg
quit
**
#end of "here" document
echo ftp transfer ended.

Now, this thing worked. I know it did, because I later downloaded the files with Firefox browser.

The question is... why was the output to the screen so strange?
Here it is:

Code:

robstr12@darkstar:~/Folding_Graphics$ ls
bigpicture.jpg  fourthwave.jpg  newmembers.jpg  thirdwave.jpg
robstr12@darkstar:~/Folding_Graphics$ ~/Shell_Scripts/ftp_maker.sh
This will use a here document to embed ftp commands in this script
bigpicture.jpg: No such file or directory.
newmembers.jpg: No such file or directory.
thirdwave.jpg: No such file or directory.
fourthwave.jpg: No such file or directory.
ftp transfer ended.
robstr12@darkstar:~/Folding_Graphics$

It looks like it was complaining that there was "No such file or directory"
I will get to learning this soon, but, I thought that if someone was really up on BASH, it would be nothing for them to answer this.

 

not sure why it does that, do you have SSH access? If so you can write a script using rm and such.

 

I'm not worried about security. I know that having the ~/.netrc file on the harddrive is not secure, since it contains the password unencrypted.

This is not a problem, it is just a curiousity to me. I'm sure as I practice more scripting it will come to me.

BTW: I'm just happy to have the thing work at all!

 

Hmmm I guess if you wanted you could modularise it a bit so you can check return codes. Such as having a bash script that receives a parameter and gets taht parameter from the server.

But redirect the output of each ftp attempt to /dev/null as you invoke it, or at the very least redirect standard error to /dev/null may get rid of the strange messages. Im not sure where they are coming from.

Cheers,
Greg