How to use FTP from the command line?

This guide is giving examples of how to use the ftp command line tool to:

Connect to a FTP server
Basic of navigations
Upload a file to the FTP server
Download a file from a FTP server
Other tips and tricks

Connect to a server from the CLI

~/$ ftp -i example.com
Connected to example.com.
Name (example.com:mickael): anonymous
331 Password required for example.com.
Password:
230 User anonymous logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp>

Navigate and access a folder

ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
drwx------ 7 web site 4096 Jun 9 07:12 .
drwx------ 7 web site 4096 Jun 9 07:12 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 web site 312 Jun 12 2017 .htaccess
drwx------ 3 web site 4096 Jul 5 2020 public
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> cd public
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> pwd
257 "/public" is current directory.

Create a local file

ftp> lpwd
Local directory is /home/mickael/
ftp> lcd Documents
Local directory now /home/mickael/Documents
ftp> !ls
/bin/bash
ftp> !touch test.txt
/bin/bash
ftp> !ls
/bin/bash
test.txt

Create / Delete a folder

ftp> mkdir test
257 "/trash" - Directory successfully created
ftp> rmdir test
250 RMD command successful

Upload a file to the FTP server

ftp> put test.txt
---> PORT 192,168,100,33,147,71
200 PORT command successful.
---> STOR test.txt
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for test.txt
226 Transfer complete

Download a file from the FTP server

ftp> get test.txt
---> TYPE I
200 Type set to I
---> PORT 192,168,100,33,156,59
200 PORT command successful.
---> RETR test.txt
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for test.txt
226 Transfer complete.

Delete a file

ftp> delete test.txt
---> DELE test.txt 250 DELE command successful.

From a script

You might not want to always be the one typing commands, it can be handy to get everything done from say a bash script. You can make it happen like this:

$ ftp -n ftp.gnu.org <<EOF
quote USER anonymous
quote PASS whatever

cd /

get welcome.msg

quit
EOF

Other tips and tricks

the ftp command can quickly reach its limits if you need to operate on folder with subfolders to either delete something recursively or copy some folders over. The lftp tool support all those use case.
exit the server:

ftp> quit
~/$

the “Not connected” error. To solve it you need to reopen your FTP like this:

ftp> pwd
Not connected.
ftp> open
Connected to example.com.
Name (example.com:mickael): anonymous
230 User anonymous logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> pwd
257 "/" is current directory.