ncftp: As the alphabet goes, so go FTP clients

It seems as we make our way further and further through the alphabet, fellow traveler, that FTP clients boast of more and more features.

ftp started us out as the baseline application. cmdftp was there already, as a cohort. lftp added a few thingamajigs, like torrent handling.

Midnight Commander — if you can accept the idea of a file manager interloping into the world of FTP access — adds a visual arrangement that appeals to others (like me). And, technically speaking, file management. 😕

And now we have ncftp, whose home page insists it has even more bells and whistles.

I have to admit some ambivalence over the features available to a command-line FTP client. Although, I do look for things like progress meters, resuming downloads, directory tree downloading and site bookmarking, as features of other programs.

So out of fairness in reporting, I’m content to acknowledge ncftp has those features, and yes, they are (more than likely; I haven’t tested them all) advantages over the classic ftp application.

I’ll also admit that the addition of ncftpput and ncftpget means you can hot-wire shell scripts to do FTP uploads and downloads too. Plus ncftpbatch and ncftpspooler, which I hardly got a chance to touch, but add two flavors of bulk FTP handling.

Now you can see why I feel FTP tools get better and better the further into the alphabet we go. I expect “zzzftp” will handle transfers, balance your checkbook, make a pot of tea and teach your child to program in C, all at the command line. 🙄