I tried to ftp a 7mb file today off my webserver.

I copied this example directly and it told me.

Port command successful
"there was a problem"

I thought it was because of the size.
But I guessed it might be cause of my firewall.

So I made the ftp connection passive:

<?PHP
  
  ...
  $login_result = ftp_login($conn_id, $ftp_user_name, $ftp_user_pass);
  ftp_pasv($conn_id, true);

?>

Ran the script again & it worked fine.

Hope this helps someone

Don't want to use an intermediate file?  Use 'php://output' as the filename and then capture the output using output buffering.

ob_start();
$result = ftp_get($ftp, "php://output", $file, FTP_BINARY);
$data = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

Don't forget to check $result to make sure there wasn't an error.  After that, manipulate the $data variable however you want.

Keep in mind that ftp_get will overwrite the file on your local machine if it has the same name.

Why there isn't an "ftp_get_contents" function, I don't know. It takes a little work to emulate one, but it's doable.
<?php
function ftp_get_contents($ftp_stream, $remote_file, $mode, $resume_pos=null){
    $pipes=stream_socket_pair(STREAM_PF_UNIX, STREAM_SOCK_STREAM, STREAM_IPPROTO_IP);
    if($pipes===false) return false;
    if(!stream_set_blocking($pipes[1], 0)){
        fclose($pipes[0]); fclose($pipes[1]);
        return false;
    }
    $fail=false;
    $data='';
    if(is_null($resume_pos)){
        $ret=ftp_nb_fget($ftp_stream, $pipes[0], $remote_file, $mode);
    } else {
        $ret=ftp_nb_fget($ftp_stream, $pipes[0], $remote_file, $mode, $resume_pos);
    }
    while($ret==FTP_MOREDATA){
        while(!$fail && !feof($pipes[1])){
            $r=fread($pipes[1], 8192);
            if($r==='') break;
            if($r===false){ $fail=true; break; }
            $data.=$r;
        }
        $ret=ftp_nb_continue($ftp_stream);
    }
    while(!$fail && !feof($pipes[1])){
        $r=fread($pipes[1], 8192);
        if($r==='') break;
        if($r===false){ $fail=true; break; }
        $data.=$r;
    }
    fclose($pipes[0]); fclose($pipes[1]);
    if($fail || $ret!=FTP_FINISHED) return false;
    return $data;
}
?>

Something similar would work to write a ftp_put_contents function, too.

Here's a quick function that figures out the correct mode to use based on a file's extension.

<?php
function get_ftp_mode($file)
{    
    $path_parts = pathinfo($file);
    
    if (!isset($path_parts['extension'])) return FTP_BINARY;
    switch (strtolower($path_parts['extension'])) {
        case 'am':case 'asp':case 'bat':case 'c':case 'cfm':case 'cgi':case 'conf':
        case 'cpp':case 'css':case 'dhtml':case 'diz':case 'h':case 'hpp':case 'htm':
        case 'html':case 'in':case 'inc':case 'js':case 'm4':case 'mak':case 'nfs':
        case 'nsi':case 'pas':case 'patch':case 'php':case 'php3':case 'php4':case 'php5':
        case 'phtml':case 'pl':case 'po':case 'py':case 'qmail':case 'sh':case 'shtml':
        case 'sql':case 'tcl':case 'tpl':case 'txt':case 'vbs':case 'xml':case 'xrc':
            return FTP_ASCII;
    }
    return FTP_BINARY;
}

// sample usage
ftp_get($conn_id, $local_file, $server_file, get_ftp_mode($server_file));
?>

ftp_sync is a way to walk the directory structure on the server and copy every directory and file to the same location locally.

<?php
$ftp_server = "ftp.example.com";
$conn_id = ftp_connect ($ftp_server)
    or die("Couldn't connect to $ftp_server"); 
    
$login_result = ftp_login($conn_id, "user", "pass");
if ((!$conn_id) || (!$login_result))
    die("FTP Connection Failed");

ftp_sync ("DirectoryToCopy");    // Use "." if you are in the current directory

ftp_close($conn_id);  

// ftp_sync - Copy directory and file structure
function ftp_sync ($dir) {

    global $conn_id;

    if ($dir != ".") {
        if (ftp_chdir($conn_id, $dir) == false) {
            echo ("Change Dir Failed: $dir<BR>\r\n");
            return;
        }
        if (!(is_dir($dir)))
            mkdir($dir);
        chdir ($dir);
    }

    $contents = ftp_nlist($conn_id, ".");
    foreach ($contents as $file) {
    
        if ($file == '.' || $file == '..')
            continue;
        
        if (@ftp_chdir($conn_id, $file)) {
            ftp_chdir ($conn_id, "..");
            ftp_sync ($file);
        }
        else
            ftp_get($conn_id, $file, $file, FTP_BINARY);
    }
        
    ftp_chdir ($conn_id, "..");
    chdir ("..");

}
?>

Note that PHP still defaults to FTP active mode by default, which is almost never used anymore since the creation of firewalls.   Don't forget to add a ftp_pasv($conn, true) after your ftp_login.

<?php
                // define some variables
        $folder_path = "YOUR FOLDER PATH"; 
        $local_file = "LOCAL FILE PATH";
        $server_file = "SERVER FILE PATH";
        
        //-- Connection Settings
        $ftp_server = "IP ADDRESS"; // Address of FTP server.
        $ftp_user_name = "USERNAME"; // Username
        $ftp_user_pass = "PASSWORD"; // Password
        #$destination_file = "FILEPATH"; 
        
        // set up basic connection
        $conn_id = ftp_connect($ftp_server);
        
        // login with username and password
        $login_result = ftp_login($conn_id, $ftp_user_name, $ftp_user_pass);
        
        // try to download $server_file and save to $local_file
        if (ftp_get($conn_id, $local_file, $server_file, FTP_BINARY)) {
            echo "Successfully written to $local_file\n";
        } else {
            echo "There was a problem\n";
        }
        
        // close the connection
        ftp_close($conn_id);
?>

Crud. The _nb_ only refers to reading from the ftp server, and the buffer in the socket pair is only about 364 bytes. So it doesn't work for files larger than that size.

If you previously downloaded a file before (like a huge web log), and just want to get the remaining portion, do this:

$local_file_size = filesize($local_file_path);
$get_result = ftp_get($conn_id, $local_file_path, $remote_file_path, FTP_BINARY, $local_file_size);

This same code works regardless of wether the local file exists already or not.  You should first test to make sure the local file is not bigger than the remote file.

Hello everybody,

If someone will try to download files to the same local file (some temporary file), like shown here:

<?php
foreach ($files as $key=>$path) {
... 
  $result = ftp_get($ftpConnId, 'temp.tmp', $path, FTP_BINARY);
...
}
?>

please take in consideration the fact that you will have big problems with downloading (getting) hole files. In other words ‘temp.tmp’ file always will have the same size equal to first downloaded file despite the real size of downloading file. I have not idea what is the reason!

If someone will think that problem is just in getting proper file size (which you will get using filssize() function) he will be mistaken. The download file’s size is not equal to source file’s size materially, that means fflush() function will not solve the problem (I have tried this as well).

Finally the solution was founded: before downloading a file you will need to delete local file if such exist (‘temp.tmp’). So working code will look like:

<?php
foreach ($files as $key=>$path) {
... 
  if (file_exists('temp.tmp')) {
    unlink('temp.tmp');
  }
  $result = ftp_get($ftpConnId, 'temp.tmp', $path, FTP_BINARY);
...
}
?>

Good luck in scripting :-)

Vitali Simsive

If you ran the example and see that it fail after 90sec (timeout).

Then try adding:
<?php
ftp_pasv($ftp_conn, true);
?>

The zero size file is not a side effect.  When the ftp_get starts the first thing it does is to create the inode/file which it will stream the data too and that is a zero size file with the nname you specified for the local file.  When the download fails it leaves the file in place.