Upload files with FTP using PowerShell

76

votes

I want to use PowerShell to transfer files with FTP to an anonymous FTP server. I would not use any extra packages. How?

There must be no risk that the script hangs or crashes.

powershellftp

The JAMS Job Scheduler offers cmdlets that make secure file transfers easy. The cmdlets make it simple to automate transfers and connect using a variety of protocols. (FTP, SFTP, etc...) – user695859

85

votes

I am not sure you can 100% bullet proof the script from not hanging or crashing, as there are things outside your control (what if the server loses power mid-upload?) - but this should provide a solid foundation for getting you started:

# create the FtpWebRequest and configure it
$ftp = [System.Net.FtpWebRequest]::Create("ftp://localhost/me.png")
$ftp = [System.Net.FtpWebRequest]$ftp
$ftp.Method = [System.Net.WebRequestMethods+Ftp]::UploadFile
$ftp.Credentials = new-object System.Net.NetworkCredential("anonymous","anonymous@localhost")
$ftp.UseBinary = $true
$ftp.UsePassive = $true
# read in the file to upload as a byte array
$content = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("C:\me.png")
$ftp.ContentLength = $content.Length
# get the request stream, and write the bytes into it
$rs = $ftp.GetRequestStream()
$rs.Write($content, 0, $content.Length)
# be sure to clean up after ourselves
$rs.Close()
$rs.Dispose()

48

votes

There are some other ways too. I have used the following script:

$File = "D:\Dev\somefilename.zip";
$ftp = "ftp://username:[email protected]/pub/incoming/somefilename.zip";

Write-Host -Object "ftp url: $ftp";

$webclient = New-Object -TypeName System.Net.WebClient;
$uri = New-Object -TypeName System.Uri -ArgumentList $ftp;

Write-Host -Object "Uploading $File...";

$webclient.UploadFile($uri, $File);

And you could run a script against the windows FTP command line utility using the following command

ftp -s:script.txt

(Check out this article)

The following question on SO also answers this: How to script FTP upload and download?

31

votes

I'm not gonna claim that this is more elegant than the highest-voted solution...but this is cool (well, at least in my mind LOL) in its own way:

$server = "ftp.lolcats.com"
$filelist = "file1.txt file2.txt"   

"open $server
user $user $password
binary  
cd $dir     
" +
($filelist.split(' ') | %{ "put ""$_""`n" }) | ftp -i -in

As you can see, it uses that dinky built-in windows FTP client. Much shorter and straightforward, too. Yes, I've actually used this and it works!

16

votes

Easiest way

The most trivial way to upload a binary file to an FTP server using PowerShell is using WebClient.UploadFile:

$client = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$client.Credentials =
    New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("username", "password")
$client.UploadFile(
    "ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip", "C:\local\path\file.zip")

Advanced options

If you need a greater control, that WebClient does not offer (like TLS/SSL encryption, etc), use FtpWebRequest. Easy way is to just copy a FileStream to FTP stream using Stream.CopyTo:

$request = [Net.WebRequest]::Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip")
$request.Credentials =
    New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("username", "password")
$request.Method = [System.Net.WebRequestMethods+Ftp]::UploadFile 

$fileStream = [System.IO.File]::OpenRead("C:\local\path\file.zip")
$ftpStream = $request.GetRequestStream()

$fileStream.CopyTo($ftpStream)

$ftpStream.Dispose()
$fileStream.Dispose()

Progress monitoring

If you need to monitor an upload progress, you have to copy the contents by chunks yourself:

$request = [Net.WebRequest]::Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip")
$request.Credentials =
    New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("username", "password")
$request.Method = [System.Net.WebRequestMethods+Ftp]::UploadFile 

$fileStream = [System.IO.File]::OpenRead("C:\local\path\file.zip")
$ftpStream = $request.GetRequestStream()

$buffer = New-Object Byte[] 10240
while (($read = $fileStream.Read($buffer, 0, $buffer.Length)) -gt 0)
{
    $ftpStream.Write($buffer, 0, $read)
    $pct = ($fileStream.Position / $fileStream.Length)
    Write-Progress `
        -Activity "Uploading" -Status ("{0:P0} complete:" -f $pct) `
        -PercentComplete ($pct * 100)
}

$ftpStream.Dispose()
$fileStream.Dispose()

Uploading folder

If you want to upload all files from a folder, see
PowerShell Script to upload an entire folder to FTP

6

votes

I recently wrote for powershell several functions for communicating with FTP, see https://github.com/AstralisSomnium/PowerShell-No-Library-Just-Functions/blob/master/FTPModule.ps1. The second function below, you can send a whole local folder to FTP. In the module are even functions for removing / adding / reading folders and files recursively.

#Add-FtpFile -ftpFilePath "ftp://myHost.com/folder/somewhere/uploaded.txt" -localFile "C:\temp\file.txt" -userName "User" -password "pw"
function Add-FtpFile($ftpFilePath, $localFile, $username, $password) {
    $ftprequest = New-FtpRequest -sourceUri $ftpFilePath -method ([System.Net.WebRequestMethods+Ftp]::UploadFile) -username $username -password $password
    Write-Host "$($ftpRequest.Method) for '$($ftpRequest.RequestUri)' complete'"
    $content = $content = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes($localFile)
    $ftprequest.ContentLength = $content.Length
    $requestStream = $ftprequest.GetRequestStream()
    $requestStream.Write($content, 0, $content.Length)
    $requestStream.Close()
    $requestStream.Dispose()
}

#Add-FtpFolderWithFiles -sourceFolder "C:\temp\" -destinationFolder "ftp://myHost.com/folder/somewhere/" -userName "User" -password "pw"
function Add-FtpFolderWithFiles($sourceFolder, $destinationFolder, $userName, $password) {
    Add-FtpDirectory $destinationFolder $userName $password
    $files = Get-ChildItem $sourceFolder -File
    foreach($file in $files) {
        $uploadUrl ="$destinationFolder/$($file.Name)"
        Add-FtpFile -ftpFilePath $uploadUrl -localFile $file.FullName -username $userName -password $password
    }
}

#Add-FtpFolderWithFilesRecursive -sourceFolder "C:\temp\" -destinationFolder "ftp://myHost.com/folder/" -userName "User" -password "pw"
function Add-FtpFolderWithFilesRecursive($sourceFolder, $destinationFolder, $userName, $password) {
    Add-FtpFolderWithFiles -sourceFolder $sourceFolder -destinationFolder $destinationFolder -userName $userName -password $password
    $subDirectories = Get-ChildItem $sourceFolder -Directory
    $fromUri = new-object System.Uri($sourceFolder)
    foreach($subDirectory in $subDirectories) {
        $toUri  = new-object System.Uri($subDirectory.FullName)
        $relativeUrl = $fromUri.MakeRelativeUri($toUri)
        $relativePath = [System.Uri]::UnescapeDataString($relativeUrl.ToString())
        $lastFolder = $relativePath.Substring($relativePath.LastIndexOf("/")+1)
        Add-FtpFolderWithFilesRecursive -sourceFolder $subDirectory.FullName -destinationFolder "$destinationFolder/$lastFolder" -userName $userName -password $password
    }
}

4

votes

Here's my super cool version BECAUSE IT HAS A PROGRESS BAR :-)

Which is a completely useless feature, I know, but it still looks cool \m/ \m/

$webclient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $webclient -EventName "UploadProgressChanged" -Action { Write-Progress -Activity "Upload progress..." -Status "Uploading" -PercentComplete $EventArgs.ProgressPercentage } > $null

$File = "filename.zip"
$ftp = "ftp://user:password@server/filename.zip"
$uri = New-Object System.Uri($ftp)
try{
    $webclient.UploadFileAsync($uri, $File)
}
catch  [Net.WebException]
{
    Write-Host $_.Exception.ToString() -foregroundcolor red
}
while ($webclient.IsBusy) { continue }

PS. Helps a lot, when I'm wondering "did it stop working, or is it just my slow ASDL connection?"

3

votes

You can simply handle file uploads through PowerShell, like this. Complete project is available on Github here https://github.com/edouardkombo/PowerShellFtp

#Directory where to find pictures to upload
$Dir= 'c:\fff\medias\'

#Directory where to save uploaded pictures
$saveDir = 'c:\fff\save\'

#ftp server params
$ftp = 'ftp://10.0.1.11:21/'
$user = 'user'
$pass = 'pass'

#Connect to ftp webclient
$webclient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient 
$webclient.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential($user,$pass)  

#Initialize var for infinite loop
$i=0

#Infinite loop
while($i -eq 0){ 

    #Pause 1 seconde before continue
    Start-Sleep -sec 1

    #Search for pictures in directory
    foreach($item in (dir $Dir "*.jpg"))
    {
        #Set default network status to 1
        $onNetwork = "1"

        #Get picture creation dateTime...
        $pictureDateTime = (Get-ChildItem $item.fullName).CreationTime

        #Convert dateTime to timeStamp
        $pictureTimeStamp = (Get-Date $pictureDateTime).ToFileTime()

        #Get actual timeStamp
        $timeStamp = (Get-Date).ToFileTime() 

        #Get picture lifeTime
        $pictureLifeTime = $timeStamp - $pictureTimeStamp

        #We only treat pictures that are fully written on the disk
        #So, we put a 2 second delay to ensure even big pictures have been fully wirtten   in the disk
        if($pictureLifeTime -gt "2") {    

            #If upload fails, we set network status at 0
            try{

                $uri = New-Object System.Uri($ftp+$item.Name)

                $webclient.UploadFile($uri, $item.FullName)

            } catch [Exception] {

                $onNetwork = "0"
                write-host $_.Exception.Message;
            }

            #If upload succeeded, we do further actions
            if($onNetwork -eq "1"){
                "Copying $item..."
                Copy-Item -path $item.fullName -destination $saveDir$item 

                "Deleting $item..."
                Remove-Item $item.fullName
            }


        }  
    }
}

2

votes

Goyuix's solution works great, but as presented it gives me this error: "The requested FTP command is not supported when using HTTP proxy."

Adding this line after $ftp.UsePassive = $true fixed the problem for me:

$ftp.Proxy = $null;

1

votes

You can use this function :

function SendByFTP {
    param (
        $userFTP = "anonymous",
        $passFTP = "anonymous",
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]$serverFTP,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]$localFile,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]$remotePath
    )
    if(Test-Path $localFile){
        $remoteFile = $localFile.Split("\")[-1]
        $remotePath = Join-Path -Path $remotePath -ChildPath $remoteFile
        $ftpAddr = "ftp://${userFTP}:${passFTP}@${serverFTP}/$remotePath"
        $browser = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
        $url = New-Object System.Uri($ftpAddr)
        $browser.UploadFile($url, $localFile)    
    }
    else{
        Return "Unable to find $localFile"
    }
}

This function send specified file by FTP. You must call the function with these parameters :

userFTP = "anonymous" by default or your username
passFTP = "anonymous" by default or your password
serverFTP = IP address of the FTP server
localFile = File to send
remotePath = the path on the FTP server

For example :

SendByFTP -userFTP "USERNAME" -passFTP "PASSWORD" -serverFTP "MYSERVER" -localFile "toto.zip" -remotePath "path/on/the/FTP/"

Upload files with FTP using PowerShell

9 Answers

Easiest way

Advanced options

Progress monitoring

Uploading folder