Command line is the most powerful utility on Linux, Most of the Linux users make use of command line to perform different operations. There are different FTP clients on the Linux for GUI but when you need to use SSH while using the servers where GUI does not work.
There are different applications on command-line FTP clients on Linux. This post will discuss the basic upload and download using the standard GNU FTP client. It can only work with the FTP servers and does not support SFTP or FTPS.
Installing FTP CLI
The GNU FTP client is very easy to download and use. It is might possible that it is already installed on your Linux Distribution. Not all the distributions have this client pre-installed. All you need is to know how to use it before getting it to work.
To install the FTP app on Linux you need to open the terminal window by pressing the Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T. Follow the given instructions according to the Linux release you are using.
Installing CLI FTP on Ubuntu
On Ubuntu Linux, the CLI FTP client is available in the Ubuntu Main repository. All you need is to install it using the apt command:
sudo apt install ftp
Installing CLI FTP on Debian
The Debian Linux supports CLI FTP, you can get it from the Debian Main software repository. Use apt-get command to install CLI FTP app.
sudo apt-get install ftp
Installing CLI FTP on Arch Linux
Arch Linux users can not get the package from the repositories for FTP package. If you want to use CLI FTP app, you need to separately install it using inetutils with the Pacman.
sudo pacman -S inetutils
Installing CLI FTP on Fedora
Use Fedora x86_64 and Fedora i386 software repositories. Installing the package is very easy from DNF command.
sudo dnf install ftp
Installing CLI FTP on OpenSUSE
The users can easily install CLI FTP on Tumbleweed, Leap 15.0 and Leap 42.3 using OpenSUSE Oss All repository.
All you need is to use the terminal and use Zypper command
sudo zypper install ftp
Installing CLI FTP on Generic Linux
The standard command-line FTP client is very easy to track down. It can be installed from different sources. Search for FTP or inetutils. Also, you can find the app from GNU.org.
Connecting to FTP Server using CLI
Starting a new connection with the server in FTP CLI application, you need to go to the terminal and make use of ftp command with IP address of the remote server.
ftp remote-ip-address-or-domain-name
If the address is accurate then the FTP app will prompt to enter the user name and the password for the server. With the correct password entry, you will get access to the FTP server using CLI.
Downloading FTP files using CLI
To download files over the FTP using the command-line, you need to use the get command
get /home/remote-username/location/of/folder/or/file
The FTP client will start downloading the files to the system. After the download is complete, the file with appear under /home/username/ directory.
Uploading FTP files using CLI
Use send command to upload the files and folders to the remote server
send /home/remote-username/location/of/folder/or/file
It will take some time to upload the files as because the upload speed is sometimes less than the download.