use strict;
  use warnings;
# ...
  chdir('/path/to/put/files/in');
  system('ftp', '-N', 'mystartfile', 'ftp.server.com') && die "FTP FAILURE: $!\n";
  chdir('/where/I/was/before');
# ...

##</code><code>##

machine ftp.server.com
login me
password somesillypw
binary
cd /path/to/fetch/from
mget *
bye

##</code><code>##

system('ftp -N mystartfile ftp.server.com &') && die "Couldn't start ftp transfer: $!\n";