#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use Net::FTP;

my $BYTES_PER_HASH = 1024;

# Fork a child process for Net::FTP
# and capture its output one char at
# a time
if (open(FTP, "-|"))
{
        # parent
        my $count = 1;
        while (getc(FTP))
        {
                print $BYTES_PER_HASH * $count, " bytes received\n";
                $count++;
        }
        print "Done\n";
}
else
{
        # child
        my $ftp = Net::FTP->new("ftp.microsoft.com", Debug => 0);
        $ftp->login("anonymous","-anonymous\@");
        $ftp->cwd("MISC");
        $ftp->hash(\*STDOUT, $BYTES_PER_HASH);
        $ftp->get("NBFCP.TXT");
        $ftp->quit;
}
[download]

If you know the size of the file (or use Net::FTP to get it before starting the download), you could use this to output a progress meter. If you don't want to output plain text, you could output javascript that updates a graphic meter instead.

-Matt

Guys,

Thanks for all of your help. I am looking at Matt's solution. The fork part of the script doesn’t seem to work properly. I have tried it on a Windows machine running Perl 5.6.1 and it runs the child process and carries out the FTP but it dosnt print the Bytes recieved, however on a Linux machine also with Perl 5.6.1 it just prints done. and FTP's nothing and also displays no Bytes Recieved.

Any ideas because this method looks very promising.

Thanks again for all your help.

Al

It could very well be hosed under Win32. I'm not sure how well a Win32 perl port would simulate fork(). It does work alright for me under Linux though.

As it's written now, the script exits silently if there's an error. Try copying out the bit listed as "child" into a separate file, setting Debug => 1, and seeing if it gives you any output.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use Net::FTP;

my $BYTES_PER_HASH = 1024;

# child
my $ftp = Net::FTP->new("ftp.microsoft.com", Debug => 1);
$ftp->login("anonymous","-anonymous\@");
$ftp->cwd("MISC");
$ftp->hash(\*STDOUT, $BYTES_PER_HASH);
$ftp->get("NBFCP.TXT");
$ftp->quit;
[download]

-Matt