LClarke has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I've been at this for ages, and I just can't seem to get it to work.

I am attempting to retrieve the EGLL.TXT file via FTP using Perl, and put it into a specific folder on my server. I can connect to the server, I can even see the file (ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/stations/EGLL.TXT) online, but I can't get it to pull onto my server when I run the script.

The code: 
# Log into the ftp #
my $ftp;
$ftp = Net::FTP->new("tgftp.nws.noaa.gov");
$ftp->login("anonymous", "anonymous") or die "login error";
$ftp->cwd("data/observations/metar/stations") or die "cwd failed";
$ftp->ascii;
$ftp->get("$station_name.TXT", "../area/weather/$station_name.TXT") or
+ die "failed to retrieve file $station_name.TXT";
$ftp->quit;
# End ftp session #

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The error: 
./get_weather.pl EGLL
failed to retrieve file EGLL.TXT at ./get_weather.pl line 31.

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Any insight at all is going to rock my world. Thank you in advance.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Perl FTP troubles
by marto (Cardinal) on Apr 16, 2016 at 09:17 UTC

    Find out why it failed:

    $ftp->get("$station_name.TXT", "../area/weather/$station_name.TXT") 
   or die "failed to retrieve file $station_name.TXT - $ftp->message";

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    Consider turning on debugging:

    my $ftp = Net::FTP->new("tgftp.nws.noaa.gov", DEBUG => 1);

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    Update: here's a basic working example:

    #!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Net::FTP;

# Log into the ftp #

my $station_name = 'EGLL.TXT';
my $ftp = Net::FTP->new("tgftp.nws.noaa.gov", DEBUG => 1);

$ftp->login("anonymous", "anonymous") 
  or die "login error - " , $ftp->message;
$ftp->cwd("data/observations/metar/stations") 
  or die "cwd failed - ", $ftp->message;
$ftp->ascii;

# N.B. I changed the destination path here:

$ftp->get("$station_name", "d:\\junk\\$station_name") 
  or die "failed to retrieve file $station_name - ", $ftp->message;
$ftp->quit;
# End ftp session #

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    Update: fixed typo

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      Progress! It's at least a little different, now.

      Error:

      failed to retrieve file EGLL.TXT - Permission denied.

      In your working example, were you able to get the file? I copypasted it, and only changed the destination path.

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        Yes:

        D:\junk>type EGLL.TXT
2016/04/16 10:20
EGLL 161020Z AUTO 34008KT 300V040 9999 -RA BKN011/// OVC023/// //////T
+CU 06/02 Q
1004 TEMPO RA

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        Do you have appropriate permissions to create a file in the target path? I've also tested the following successfully:

        $ftp->get("$station_name", "..\\$station_name") 
  or die "failed to retrieve file $station_name - ", $ftp->message;

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