Python FTP query

Question

I am trying to implement FTP download from a UNIX server into a windows box. I have got this far(code below) , but get an error specifying a file object is required but str is passed

Code

#!/usr/bin/python
import ftplib
filename = "filename"
ftp = ftplib.FTP("xx.xxx.xxx.xxx")
ftp.login("uid", "psw")
ftp.cwd("/my/location")
print filename
ftp.retrbinary('RETR %s' % filename, file.write)

Error

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "FTP.py", line 10, in <module>
    ftp.retrbinary('RETR %s' % filename, file.write)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/ftplib.py", line 399, in retrbinary
    callback(data)
TypeError: descriptor 'write' requires a 'file' object but received a 'str'

Can anyone advise how to sort this. Also if possible where can I get some sample examples to learn Python FTP.

NPE · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-02 04:42:19Z

1

You need to open a local file to write to.

Change

ftp.retrbinary('RETR %s' % filename, file.write)

to

ftp.retrbinary('RETR %s' % filename, open(filename, 'wb').write)

answered Jul 2, 2013 at 4:42

NPE

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3 Comments

misguided Over a year ago

It did run succesfully. I am not sure where the file goes though ? Where did it get downloaded? Or did it at all ?

NPE Over a year ago

@misguided: That's controlled by the filename argument to open. If there's no path, the file will be created in the script's current working directory.

misguided Over a year ago

so how do I write the file into my local windows system ? The scripts is being run on a unix server .

AMADANON Inc. · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-02 04:43:46Z

0

ftp.retrbinary('RETR %s' % filename, open('myoutputfile.txt', 'wb').write)

answered Jul 2, 2013 at 4:43

AMADANON Inc.

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Comments

fomars · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-28 15:03:08Z

0

Open the file you are going to write to using with open. Supposing you are reading from file server_filename and writing to the file local_filename:

with open(local_filename, 'wb') as opened_file:
    ftp.retrbinary('RETR %s' % server_filename, opened_file.write)

answered Jan 28, 2015 at 15:03

fomars

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