How do I gather files from remote machines?

[Darkness Productions]

I need to gather files from multiple remote machines, preferably using TCP/IP or some other method. The files will most likely not be on any share, so is there a way to go about this? Connecting to Windows and *nix machines is a must though.

Originally posted as a Categorized Question.

[projekt21]

Your problem is not the client machine, as there are many Perl-Modules out there doing the dirty work for you (including Net::FTP).

Your problem is the server side: you need one or more protocols there to make your files accessible to your client. If you manage to run FTP (or HTTP, or whatever) on your *nix and Windows machines and manage to access those files with standard client software, the perl stuff to automate that all is quite simple (if you read your documentation).

If you have chosen one or more protocols for your servers, managed to run them and still have trouble with your client side perl, come back and you will be helped.

[ariels]

If your hosts support FTP, you can script interactions using Net::FTP (CPAN).

Other protocols exist, of course. If you administer the machines, rsync is a distinct possibility.

[projekt21]

It is the same problem. The difference is that now your server must act as a client and your clients must act as servers. Install some FTP server on your clients and use Net::FTP as client on your server (uuuh, confusing). Otherwise you need to run some kind of upload-script on each client if this suits better.

[Darkness Productions]

Hmm... actually, no. I need the server to gather files from the client. The code is run on the server side, hopefully in attempts to gather the files from the client, without much effort. It's basically for a stats gathering script, where the files are pulled from the clients (via internal network I would guess). Ideas?

Glen