jsftp

A client FTP library for NodeJS that focuses on correctness, clarity and conciseness. It doesn't get in the way and plays nice with streaming APIs.

Starting it up

const jsftp = require("jsftp");
 
const Ftp = new jsftp({
  host: "myserver.com",
  port: 3331, // defaults to 21
  user: "user", // defaults to "anonymous"
  pass: "1234" // defaults to "@anonymous"
});

jsftp gives you access to all the raw commands of the FTP protocol in form of methods in the Ftp object. It also provides several convenience methods for actions that require complex chains of commands (e.g. uploading and retrieving files, passive operations), as shown below.

When raw commands succeed they always pass the response of the server to the callback, in the form of an object that contains two properties: code, which is the response code of the FTP operation, and text, which is the complete text of the response.

Raw (or native) commands are accessible in the form Ftp.raw(command, params, callback)

Thus, a command like QUIT will be called like this:

Ftp.raw("quit", (err, data) => {
  if (err) {
    return console.error(err);
  }
 
  console.log("Bye!");
});

and a command like MKD (make directory), which accepts parameters, looks like this:

Ftp.raw("mkd", "/new_dir", (err, data) => {
  if (err) {
    return console.error(err);
  }
  console.log(data.text); // Show the FTP response text to the user
  console.log(data.code); // Show the FTP response code to the user
});

API and examples

new Ftp(options)

• options is an object with the following properties:

{
  host: 'localhost', // Host name for the current FTP server.
  port: 3333, // Port number for the current FTP server (defaults to 21).
  user: 'user', // Username
  pass: 'pass', // Password
  createSocket: ({port, host}, firstAction) => {
    return net.createConnection({port, host}, firstAction);
  }, // function that creates the socket, default uses net.createConnection
}

• options.createSocket could be used to implement a proxy for the ftp socket, e.g. socksv5

const {SocksClient} = require('socks');
const ftp = new Ffp({
  host: 'localhost',
  port: 3333,
  user: 'user',
  pass: 'password',
  createSocket: ({port, host}, firstAction) => {
    return SocksClient.createConnection({
      proxy: {
        ipaddress: '159.203.75.200'
        port: 1080,
        type: 5
      },
 
      command: 'connect',
 
      destination: {
        host,
        port
      }
    })
  }
})

Creates a new Ftp instance.

Ftp.host

Host name for the current FTP server.

Ftp.port

Port number for the current FTP server (defaults to 21).

Ftp.socket

NodeJS socket for the current FTP server.

Ftp.features

Array of feature names for the current FTP server. It is generated when the user authenticates with the auth method.

Ftp.system

Contains the system identification string for the remote FTP server.

Methods

Ftp.raw(command, [...args], callback)

With the raw method you can send any FTP command to the server. The method accepts a callback with the signature err, data, in which err is the error response coming from the server (usually a 4xx or 5xx error code) and the data is an object that contains two properties: code and text. code is an integer indicating the response code of the response and text is the response string itself.

Ftp.auth(username, password, callback)

Authenticates the user with the given username and password. If null or empty values are passed for those, auth will use anonymous credentials. callback will be called with the response text in case of successful login or with an error as a first parameter, in normal Node fashion.

Ftp.ls(filePath, callback)

Lists information about files or directories and yields an array of file objects with parsed file properties to the callback. You should use this function instead of stat or list in case you need to do something with the individual file properties.

ftp.ls(".", (err, res) => {
  res.forEach(file => console.log(file.name));
});

Ftp.list(filePath, callback)

Lists filePath contents using a passive connection. Calls callback with a string containing the directory contents in long list format.

ftp.list(remoteCWD, (err, res) => {
  console.log(res);
  // Prints something like
  // -rw-r--r--   1 sergi    staff           4 Jun 03 09:32 testfile1.txt
  // -rw-r--r--   1 sergi    staff           4 Jun 03 09:31 testfile2.txt
  // -rw-r--r--   1 sergi    staff           0 May 29 13:05 testfile3.txt
  // ...
});

Ftp.get(remotePath, callback)

Gives back a paused socket with the file contents ready to be streamed, or calls the callback with an error if not successful.

var str = ""; // Will store the contents of the file
ftp.get("remote/path/file.txt", (err, socket) => {
  if (err) {
    return;
  }
 
  socket.on("data", d => {
    str += d.toString();
  });
 
  socket.on("close", err => {
    if (hadErr) {
      console.error("There was an error retrieving the file.");
    }
  });
 
  socket.resume();
});

Ftp.get(remotePath, localPath, callback)

Stores the remote file directly in the given local path.

ftp.get("remote/file.txt", "local/file.txt", err => {
  if (hadErr) {
    return console.error("There was an error retrieving the file.");
  }
  console.log("File copied successfully!");
});

Ftp.put(source, remotePath, callback)

Uploads a file to filePath. It accepts a string with the local path for the file, a Buffer, or a Readable stream as a source parameter.

ftp.put(buffer, "path/to/remote/file.txt", err => {
  if (!err) {
    console.log("File transferred successfully!");
  }
});

Ftp.rename(from, to, callback)

Renames a file in the server. from and to are both filepaths.

ftp.rename(from, to, (err, res) => {
  if (!err) {
    console.log("Renaming successful!");
  }
});

Ftp.keepAlive([wait])

Refreshes the interval thats keep the server connection active. wait is an optional time period (in milliseconds) to wait between intervals.

You can find more usage examples in the unit tests. This documentation will grow as jsftp evolves.

Installation

npm install jsftp

Tests and Coverage

JSFtp tests against ProFTPD by default. To accomplish that, it uses a Docker set-up, so you'll need Docker installed in your machine in order to run tests.

To run tests and coverage reports:

npm test

...
43 passing (10s)

|-----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------------|
|File       |  % Stmts | % Branch |  % Funcs |  % Lines |Uncovered Lines |
|-----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------------|
|All files  |    86.47 |    73.17 |    95.45 |    86.47 |                |
|jsftp      |      100 |      100 |      100 |      100 |                |
|  index.js |      100 |      100 |      100 |      100 |                |
|jsftp/lib  |    86.43 |    73.17 |    95.45 |    86.43 |                |
|  jsftp.js |    86.43 |    73.17 |    95.45 |    86.43 |... 722,724,733 |
|-----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|----------------|

License

See LICENSE.