FTP upload file works manually, but fails using Python ftplib

Question

I installed vsFTP in a Debian box. When manually upload file using ftp command, it's ok. i.e, the following session works:

john@myhost:~$ ftp xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 5111
Connected to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.
220 Hello,Welcom to my FTP server.
Name (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:john): ftpuser
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> put st.zip
local: st.zip remote: st.zip
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Ok to send data.
226 File receive OK.
12773 bytes sent in 0.00 secs (277191.8 kB/s)
ftp> 221 Goodbye.

(Please noted that as above, I configured vsFTP server to use a non-default port,e.g 5111 for some reason)

Now when I write a script in python to upload file programmatically, it failed. the error says 'time out', as the following session shows:

john@myhost:~$ ipython
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Jan 24 2010, 14:53:14) 
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

IPython 0.8.4 -- An enhanced Interactive Python.
?         -> Introduction and overview of IPython's features.
%quickref -> Quick reference.
help      -> Python's own help system.
object?   -> Details about 'object'. ?object also works, ?? prints more.

In [1]: import ftplib

In [2]: ftp=ftplib.FTP()                                                    

In [3]: ftp.connect('xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx','5111')                                
Out[3]: "220 Hello,Welcom to my FTP server."

In [4]: ftp.login('ftpuser','ftpuser')                              
Out[4]: '230 Login successful.'

In [5]: f=open('st.zip','rb')                              

In [6]: ftp.storbinary('STOR %s' % 'my_ftp_file.zip', f)                            
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
error                                     Traceback (most recent call last)

...

/usr/lib/python2.5/ftplib.pyc in ntransfercmd(self, cmd, rest)
    322             af, socktype, proto, canon, sa = socket.getaddrinfo(host, port, 0, socket.SOCK_STREAM)[0]
    323             conn = socket.socket(af, socktype, proto)
--> 324             conn.connect(sa)
    325             if rest is not None:
    326                 self.sendcmd("REST %s" % rest)

/usr/lib/python2.5/socket.pyc in connect(self, *args)

error: (110, 'Connection timed out')

I guess there is some wrong config in my vsFTP server, but cannot figure it out. Anyone can help ?

my vsFTP config is:


listen=YES

connect_from_port_20=YES
listen_port=5111
ftp_data_port=5110

# Passive FTP mode allowed
pasv_enable=YES
pasv_min_port=5300
pasv_max_port=5400

max_per_ip=2

This question / answer also helps stackoverflow.com/questions/50060037/… — Tim

Jim Garrison Jim Garrison · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-28T17:21:46

The timeout doesn't happen until you try to send the data, so you were able to connect to the server successfully. The only difference I see is that ftplib uses passive mode by default, whereas your command-line client does not appear to. Try doing

ftp.set_pasv(False)

before initiating the transfer and see what happens.

Note that non-passive mode is essentially obsolete because it cannot be used across NAT firewalls, so you should probably configure vsFTP to allow passive mode.

FTP upload file works manually, but fails using Python ftplib

1 Answers