PHP and FTP

PHP provides built-in functions that closely resemble standard FTP commands. In addition to transferring files, PHP allows your scripts to perform many administrative functions. Table 13-1 lists the most useful FTP commands supported by PHP.

Table 13-1. Common FTP Commands Supported by PHP

FTP Function (Where `$ftp` Is the FTP File Stream)	Usage
`ftp_cdup($ftp);`	Makes the parent directory the current directory
`ftp_chdir ($ftp, "directory/path")`	Changes the current directory
`ftp_delete ($ftp, "file_name")`	Deletes a file
`ftp_get ($ftp, "local file", "remote file", MODE)`	Copies the remote file to the local file where `MODE` indicates if the remote file is FTP_ASCII or FTP_BINARY
`ftp_mkdir($ftp, "directory name")`	Creates a new directory
`ftp_rename($ftp, "file name")`	Renames a file or a directory on the FTP server
`ftp_put ($ftp, "remote file", "local file", MODE)`	Copies the local file to the remote file where `MODE` indicates if the local file is FTP_ASCII or FTP_BINARY
`ftp_rmdir($ftp, "directory/path")`	Removes a directory
`ftp_rawlist($ftp, "directory/path")`	Returns an array with each array element containing directory information about a file

As shown in Table 13-1, the PHP FTP commands allow you to write webbots that create, delete, and rename directories and files. You may also use PHP/CURL to perform advanced FTP tasks requiring advanced authentication or encryption. Use of these features is outside the scope of this book, but they’re available for you to explore on the official PHP website available at http://www.php.net.