One line ftp server in python

Question

Is it possible to have a one line command in python to do a simple ftp server? I\'d like to be able to do this as quick and temporary way to transfer files to a linux box wi

Answer 1

Why don't you instead use a one-line HTTP server?

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000

will serve the contents of the current working directory over HTTP on port 8000.

If you use Python 3, you should instead write

python3 -m http.server 8000

See the SimpleHTTPServer module docs for 2.x and the http.server docs for 3.x.

By the way, in both cases the port parameter is optional.

Answer 2

The answers above were all assuming your Python distribution would have some third-party libraries in order to achieve the "one liner python ftpd" goal, but that is not the case of what @zio was asking. Also, SimpleHTTPServer involves web broswer for downloading files, it's not quick enough.

Python can't do ftpd by itself, but you can use netcat, nc:

nc is basically a built-in tool from any UNIX-like systems (even embedded systems), so it's perfect for "quick and temporary way to transfer files".

Step 1, on the receiver side, run:

nc -l 12345 | tar -xf -

this will listen on port 12345, waiting for data.

Step 2, on the sender side:

tar -cf - ALL_FILES_YOU_WANT_TO_SEND ... | nc $RECEIVER_IP 12345

You can also put pv in the middle to monitor the progress of transferring:

tar -cf - ALL_FILES_YOU_WANT_TO_SEND ...| pv | nc $RECEIVER_IP 12345

After the transferring is finished, both sides of nc will quit automatically, and job done.

Answer 3

Obligatory Twisted example:

twistd -n ftp

And probably useful:

twistd ftp --help

Usage: twistd [options] ftp [options].
WARNING: This FTP server is probably INSECURE do not use it.
Options:
  -p, --port=           set the port number [default: 2121]
  -r, --root=           define the root of the ftp-site. [default:
                    /usr/local/ftp]
  --userAnonymous=  Name of the anonymous user. [default: anonymous]
  --password-file=  username:password-style credentials database
  --version         
  --help            Display this help and exit.