Who needs files? Net::FTP::Scalar (code)

[deprecated]

Are you sick and tired of writing to a file with Net::FTP? Have you thought "gee, it would be nice if graham had made it possible for me to write to a scalar?"

Well, monks, I have. And tonight I decided it was time to do something about it.

So, I present Net::FTP::Scalar.

Here is the sample code, and the module is available on envy.posixnap.net.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;

use Net::FTP::Scalar;

$Net::FTP::Scalar::SCALAR_MODE = 1;
my $OUT_FILE;

my $ftp = Net::FTP::Scalar -> new("ftp.isi.edu", Debug => 0);
$ftp -> login("anonymous", "foo@");
$ftp -> cwd("/in-notes");
if (not $ftp -> get("rfc1001.txt")) {
        $ftp -> quit;
        die "could not ftp ...\n";
}
else {
        $OUT_FILE = $Net::FTP::Scalar::OUT_FILE;
}

print $OUT_FILE;

exit 0;

--
Laziness, Impatience, Hubris, and Generosity.

[staunch]

Definitely a big ++, I have always wanted this functionality.
Thank you very much. This is quite nice and solves a problem I've run into many times.

I think it would be great to have yet another interface for simple transfers that is similar to LWP::Simple.
Maybe something like:

use Net::FTP::Simple qw(get);
my($file) = get("ftp://user:[e-mail]/pub/somefile.tx
+t");

What do you think?

Staunch

[staunch]

Although LWP::* can do FTP as I found out. And that is probably the recommended way to go. I had already basically finished this by the time I figured that out
So I'm going to post it here, for comments, or whatever.

Default mode is to download in Binary, you can specify Ascii like this:
my($file) = get("ftp://user:[e-mail]/pub/somefile.txt;type=a");

Here is Simple.pm:

package Net::FTP::Simple;

require Exporter;

use strict;
use vars qw(@ISA @EXPORT @EXPORT_OK $VERSION);

@ISA = qw(Exporter);
@EXPORT = qw();
@EXPORT_OK = qw(get);
$VERSION = '0.01';

use URI;
use Net::FTP::Scalar;

$Net::FTP::Scalar::SCALAR_MODE = 1;

sub get {
    my($url) = shift();

    my($uri) = URI->new($url);

    my($user) = $uri->user();
    my($pass) = $uri->password();
    my($host) = $uri->host();
    my($port) = $uri->port();

    my($ftp) = Net::FTP::Scalar->new($host, Debug => 0) || warn("new()
+ '$host' failed: $@") && return();

    $ftp->login($user, $pass) || warn("login() '$user' failed: $@") &&
+ return();

    my(@path) = grep { length() } $uri->path_segments();
    my($file) = pop(@path);

    my($type);

    if (ref($file)) {
        my(@params);
        ($file, @params) = @$file;
        foreach (@params) {
            $type = $_ if (s/^type=//);
        }
    }


    if (defined($type) && $type eq 'a') {
        $ftp->ascii();
    } else {
        $ftp->binary();
    }
    
    foreach (@path) {
        $ftp->cwd($_) || warn("cwd() '$_' failed: $@") && return();
    }
    
    unless ($ftp->get($file)) {
        $ftp->quit();
        warn("get() '$file' failed: $@");
        return();
    }

    return($Net::FTP::Scalar::OUT_FILE);
}

return(1);

Staunch

[deprecated]

It would be, like, trivially easy given the code I wrote. I'm not up to doing it right now. Why don't you give it a try, and ask me if you have any questions? I'm sure other monks here would like Net::FTP::Simple.

dep.

--
Laziness, Impatience, Hubris, and Generosity.

[staunch]

Sorry, I wasn't asking you to necessarily write it. Just wondering if you thought it was a good idea or not.

My skills are definitely not up to your level, but I think I'll take a crack at it tonight utilizing your module.

Thanks again.

Staunch

[runrig]

I was wondering why someone hadn't yet patched Net::FTP (or something in the family) to accept a tied filehandle. That way you could pass it an IO::Scalar filehandle and have it write to (or read from) a scalar directly. I looked at it before in a previous post and it didn't look hard to do (and princepawn had an alternative which better answered that question anyway, but could also be used here). Hmm, maybe I'll get a round tuit if no one else does...

[gbarr]

Are you sick and tired of writing to a file with Net::FTP? Have you thought "gee, it would be nice if graham had made it possible for me to write to a scalar?"

Um, I did. $ftp->retr($filename) will return a tied filehandle. So you can read from that in the same way you would read from a file.

[runrig]

In the spirit of TMTOWTDI, though, why can't I pass Net::FTP a tied filehandle (say, an IO::Scalar), and have the data read that way?

Update: Ok, done :)

[gbarr]

Because nobody has sent a patch :)

[princepawn]

What is Net::FTP::Simple? and would you like to roll that or this into my Net::FTP::Common. Come to think of it, I've got to re-join the [e-mail] mailing list.

[princepawn]

I'm the lazy type though. I would have never done all that you did to make this module.

I would have simply used File::Temp or whatever CPAN module generates temporary filenames and then uploaded and downloaded those and then removed them.

Maybe a little slower, maybe a bit less direct, but that is what orthogonality is all about