FTP diff via script?

[David Timms]

Arthur Pemberton wrote:
> On 6/8/06, Ed Greshko <Ed.Greshko at greshko.com> wrote:
>> Arthur Pemberton wrote:
>> > On 6/8/06, Ed Greshko <Ed.Greshko at greshko.com> wrote:
>> >> Arthur Pemberton wrote:
>> >> > Can anyone suggest how I would go about downloading an entire FTP 
>> tree
>> >> > (the easy part) then basically making diffs of it every day?
>> >> >
>> >> > I can do the scripting, just not sure what tools are out there, or
>> >> > what search terms to use.
>> >>
>> >> Why don't you just use "rsync"?
rsync can use shells eg ssh. But I don't think you could use ftp as the 
"shell" ?

>> > Wasn't aware that rsync supported FTP, will have to checkup on that.
>>
>> I didn't say it supported FTP....  It is a transfer mechanism on to
>> itself.  But, it does what I think you are asking.  It will only
>> transfer the bits that have changed.
>>
> 
> Well thanks, but the data to be transfered is only accessible to me
> via ftp....sadly.
There is a later ftp server/client standard that includes modified times 
and sizes being available within the protocol. Not every server supports 
it, nor every client, but this seems like it would be an efficient way 
to achieve it. Some software (w32) I use compares these before 
downloading from the master ftp server. I do not know what linux 
servers/clients support this enh protocol.

DaveT