Thread: Problem trying to retrieve a file from ftp server

Hello, I'm a new member of the community, I hope that you can help me with my issue. I'm trying to retrieve a file from a ftp server (located on my notebook), but I can't do it and I can't figure out why. I can access to the server, list the files on it but when I try to download a test file it just doesn't do it. I'm using commons-net 2.2 library. Here's the code:

import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPClient;
 
import java.io.*;
 
public class ClientFtp {
 
	/**
	 * @param args
	 */
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		String localpath = "/Users/usr_name/Desktop";
		String remotepath = "/Users/usr_name/ftpfile";
		FTPClient client = new FTPClient();
		FileOutputStream fout = null;
 
		try{
			fout = new FileOutputStream(localpath + "newfile.txt");
			client.connect("192.168.1.6", 21);
			System.out.println(client.getReplyString());
			client.login("user", "pwd");
			System.out.println(client.getReplyString());
 
			if (client.retrieveFile(remotepath + "testfile.txt", fout))
				System.out.println("download complete");
			else 
				System.out.println("error while downloading");
			fout.flush();
			fout.close();
			client.disconnect();
 
		}
		catch (IOException e){
			System.out.println(e.toString());
		}
 
	}
 
 
}

Can someone give me a hint on what's wrong?
Thanks

Originally Posted by copeg

Can you define what you mean by 'doesn't do it'? Any exceptions thrown?

no, no exceptions thrown; the method returns false, which means the transfer was not successful, but it gives me no explanation whatsoever..

EDIT
This is the output :

220 192.168.1.6 FTP server (tnftpd 20080929) ready.

230 User usr logged in.

error while downloading

Are you sure you're looking at the correct FTP path? use listFiles() to see if that file exists and is at the correct path.

String remotepath = "/Users/usr_name/ftpfile";

so this line: if (client.retrieveFile(remotepath + "testfile.txt", fout))

is actually: if (client.retrieveFile("/Users/usr_name/ftpfiletestfile.txt", fout))

You need a "/" between remotePath and testfile.txt, because /Users/usr_name/ftpfiletestfile.txt is not the file you want to download.

Should be: if (client.retrieveFile(remotepath + "/testfile.txt", fout))...... Or leave it as is and change remotepath to "/Users/usr_name/ftpfile/"