Windows Binary for LFTP

For several years, I have used FTP Voyager (and more recently Filezilla) for my implicit FTP encryption needs. While they ‘work’, having to install a big tool to do something simple is not always the best way to do things, and I began to look around for a light command line tool that did some of the same things (the regular FTP client in Linux and Windows, as you may know, is extremely basic and does not support features like implicit encryption).

Several months ago, my friend Chris at LSU’s SRCC recommended me lftp. I’ve used it quite extensively on Linux servers. It’s a wonderful quick and dirty cli tool, particularly when quickly scripting out FTP PUTs or GETs on Windows servers is involved. (Here is an excellent tutorial for newbies)

Today I found a Windows binary of LFTP on the Doom9’s forum. I scanned it with up-to-date AVG, ClamAV, and Symantec signatures, and it all seems to be kosher.

Those wanting to see how it works before they download it might appreciate the following lftp –help output.

lftp –help

Usage: lftp [OPTS]

`lftp’ is the first command executed by lftp after rc files
-f execute commands from the file and exit
-c execute the commands and exit
–help print this help and exit
–version print lftp version and exit

Other options are the same as in `open’ command
-e execute the command just after selecting
-u [,] use the user/password for authentication

-p use the port for connection
host name, URL or bookmark name

Personally, I do it all with the following type of command:

lftp ftps://user:password@ftp.yourserver.com:990

(From there, you can quickly navigate through the folders like you’d expect to normally in in FTP.)

Those paranoid about installing anything on a stable box should probably closely examine the hashes and contents of the install.bat file.

lftp-install.zip ea72152c91b52ac7ae5f962764eef4eb

install.bat

copy *.* %windir%\system
regsvr32 %windir%\system\cygwin1.dll
regsvr32 %windir%\system\cygncurses5.dll

lftp.exe 8be4378428af8a18c9d1cc58abac1241 (md5)
cygncurses5.dll 2044dbb9e65b51d5345be7d62b27477e (md5)
cygwin1.dll 596938bda60e655b82a68adb315e3bc6 (md5)