FTP

Minimal FTP client implementation attempting to follow RFC959. Partial support for RFC2428. Work on RFC4217 (FTP over TLS) is in progress. Yet another project that has not been battle tested and probably has issues.

Requirements

• Boost ASIO
• Catch2 (if you enable the tests)
• CMake
• Compiler with C++17 support

Usage

CMake

Just add it as a subdirectory and link it to your program. It builds both static and dynamic libraries and you can choose between the ftp::ftp_static and ftp::ftp_shared targets.

add_subdirectory(ftp)
...
target_link_libraries(my_executable PRIVATE ftp::ftp_static)

The library

Add the headers to your file:

#include <ftp/ftp.hpp>

Create a rs::ftp::connection_options object and populate it with FTP server information:

rs::ftp::connection_options opts;
opts.username = "admin";
opts.password = "admin";
opts.server_hostname = "localhost";
opts.server_port = 21;

Then create a rs::ftp::client object, pass it the connection options, connect and login:

rs::ftp::client client;
client.set_connection_options(opts);
client.connect();
client.login();

The library provides methods for basic file and folder manipulation, also for downloading/uploading files. For more examples take a look at the test suite. Finally don't forget to close the connection:

client.close();

Also there is a timeout period for the commands, that you can control from rs::ftp::connection_options.

Debugging

In case the client misbehaves, debug logging is available. To enable it, set rs::ftp::connection_options to true. This will print all the command exchange that occurs between the client and the server. Attach it with the issue for the bug.

Limitations

• Only passive transfer mode supported, because of firewalls
• Not thread safe
• Not a complete implementation Only a subset of the FTP commands are supported. No fancy transmission modes/format controls/etc. supported.
• Only tested with vsFTPd - might not work correctly with other FTP servers

Performance

Yes...Maybe...No.

Disclamer

DO NOT USE FTP if you have a more secure way to transfer your data. FTP has been terribly unsecure for decades now. The only acceptable use case is for integration with VERY legacy systems.