Accessing the FTP service
The service is available at ftp.ed.ac.uk.
Logging in
The service is available at ftp.ed.ac.uk. You may login to the service anonymously using the username anonymous and your email address as the password.
Common commands
- ls
- will list the files in the current directory
- mkdir dir
- will create a new sub-directory called dir though you cannot create directories in the /edupload and /incoming directories
- cd dir
- will change your current directory to the sub-directory dir
- get file
- will fetch the file named file from the archive to your desktop system
- put file
- will put the file called file on your local system and upload it to the current working directory on the archive
- binary
- put the server in binary mode for uploading binary files rather than text files
- passive
- Put the server in passive mode (required due to the firewall on the server)
How to download a file from the server
It is best to use a command line ftp program. Windows, Mac and Linux systems all provide a command line ftp client. Open a command or terminal window and then type: ftp ftp.ed.ac.uk
Login using the username 'anonymous' and use your email address as password.
Put your session into passive mode (this is required due to the firewall installed on the FTP server). Note that the ftp command on some versions of Windows no longer provide passive mode ftp and you may need to use an alternative:
passive
Next change your current working directory to either the incoming directory or the edupload directory (be aware that edupload can only be accessed from the University network):
cd /incoming
If the file you are uploading contains binary data and is not a plain text file, then issue the command:
binary
Next download your file(s) using the get command. Note the name needs to be an exact match:
get myfile.txt
Your file will then be downloaded into your current working directory.
How to upload a file to the server
It is best to use a command line ftp program. Windows, Mac and Linux systems all provide a command line ftp client. Open a command or terminal window and then type:
ftp ftp.ed.ac.uk
Login using the username 'anonymous' and use your email address as password.
Next change your current working directory to either the incoming directory or the edupload directory (be aware that edupload can only be accessed from the University network):
cd /incoming
Put your session into passive mode (this is required due to the firewall installed on the FTP server):
passive
If the file you are uploading contains binary data and is not a plain text file, then issue the command:
binary
Next upload your file(s) using the put command:
put myfile.txt
Your file will then be loaded on the ftp server. You will not be able to get a file listing of it though as the directory is protected. If you intend to upload multiple files and/or a directory structure we strongly recommend packaging them up into a single archive file e.g. a zip file prior to upload.
Alternative ftp clients
If your desktop doesn't have a suitable command line ftp client then we recommend using FileZilla.
Note
Files uploaded to /incoming will normally be deleted after one day. If you want files to remain there for longer, you must email ftpmaster@ed.ac.uk and request this.
Files uploaded to /edupload are automatically deleted after one week and you don't need to make any special request. Only people connecting from the University's own network can upload files to /edupload.
Anyone can download files from both /incoming and /edupload if they know the names of the files.