File does not transfer from UNIX to Windows using Apache Commons Net 2.0 FTPClient

Try the following, bearing in mind that you might need to CD remotely if you're not in the right dir

FileInputStreamfis = new FileInputStream(file);
boolean success = ftp.storeFile("123.txt",fis);
fis.close();
if (!success) {
	// Report error
}
                                              

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afibarra, thanks for the suggesting, but I have an entire app built already using Commons Net 2.0 - would prefer not to go back and have to recreate anything.

CEHJ - thanks for the tip.  It did help, but the file still will not transfer.  I tried throwing exceptions if success was false, but there does not seem to be any exception occuring because when I try to get the exception message it says null.

Of course this program runs fine when I run it from my Windows PC, it's only when run on UNIX do I have the problem. I had our network admin check the firewall since our UNIX system is on a different vlan but he sees no denied traffic, so I'm not quite sure what else it could be.

Thanks.

CHEJ, one more note - I am executing the jar file from my home dir on UNIX which is where 123.txt is (even though I specify the full path in the program), and when I log into the ftp server using my credentials I am in the directory I am trying to upload to - so I'm not sure any changing of directories is necessary.  Thanks.

>>I tried throwing exceptions if success was false, but there does not seem to be any exception occuring because when I try to get the exception message it says null.

Please post the code you used. If you're able to try to get the message, that would mean of course that it *did* throw an exception

I told it to throw the exception in hopes to get a message... I'm definitely not "new to Java", but I am by no means an expert so this may not be the best way to go about it... open to any suggestions.  Thanks.

File file = new File("/home/denisem/123.txt");
if (file.exists()){
  FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
  boolean success = ftp.storeFile("123.txt", fis);	
  fis.close();					
  if (success)
    System.out.println("File successfully transferred");
  else
     throw new Exception();
}

                                              

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You're not getting a message since you're not supplying one to the Exception ctor:

>>throw new Exception();

Try

throw new RuntimeException("Did not transfer file");

Sorry, it was a sloppy mistake.  I was expecting something more along the lines of a printStackTrace() output.

In any event, you have helped me point out that the file transfer is in fact failing... however, I am desperate to figure out why it is failing and how to get it to work.

Thanks so much!

>>I was expecting something more along the lines of a printStackTrace() output.

You can of course call printStackTrace if you want, but in this case, it's quite obvious what the origin is - IF there's a message ;-)

It's failing probably for the reason i gave: you need to CD (unless at least you can write to the 'root' of the server)

CEHJ, my apologies - I didn't think that was the solution since I am specifying the full file path to the file on UNIX, and since when I connect to the FTP server with my credentials I am in the remote directory that I need to be in and that I have full access to.  If the problem was a change directory issue I would assume that it would also fail when I attempt to run this from my windows machine (specifying the windows path to the file on my desktop).

I will play with changing the directories though to see if that fixes the issue.  Thanks.

No, i take your point. What's the output of the following?

ls -l /home/denisem/123.txt

Here is the output:
/home/denisem> ls -l /home/denisem/123.txt
-rw-r--r--   1 denisem    tipixgrp        67 Oct 30 13:32 /home/denisem/123.txt

I did some more tests... the problem is specifically only with the sending of a file.
1.  Connect to windows ftp server from UNIX and delete remote file - success
2.  Connect to windows ftp server and download remote file to UNIX (using FileOutputStream) - 123.txt gets created in /home/denisem, but no data is transfered so file is 0byte
3.  Connect to windows ftp server and upload file to remote server - fail

I used the same 123.txt in the same locations for all cases just to rule out the file or paths being the problem.  This seems to point either a configuration issue in the ftp program when ftp'ing between unix & windows - or a network issue.  I also checked the FTP server logs - nothing looked out of the ordinary except this line:
[2] Fri 30Oct09 13:36:11 - (003551) REST 0
[6] Fri 30Oct09 13:36:11 - (003551) 350 Restarting at 0. Send STORE or RETRIEVE.

Could it be possible that UNIX is not actually sending these commands?  But if that were the case I would think it would not work when I manually ftp from UNIX to Windows.  This is very strange indeed.  Ultimately I can just create the application to run on a client machine and act as an intermediary but it would be ideal to have my app run directly on the UNIX system.  Just not sure where to go from here.

Thanks for your help.

Shall have to think about this. What you could do for now if you can manage it is to try to put your 'manual' ftp session into debug and then mimic that in your program

> Sorry, it was a sloppy mistake.  I was expecting something more along the lines of a printStackTrace() output.

Its not a mistake. You would get that if an exception was thrown, there is no need to specify a message in the exception

and from what you have said you don't need to change directories

suggest you try a different ftp client as afibarra originally suggested.
Also worth testing on a different ftp server

Will save you wasting time changing things that aren't busted.

objects, thanks for your input. There is a firewall - but our network admin confirmed it is not blocking the ftp traffic.  I can't seem to win on UNIX - this is actually the third FTP client that I've tried and found that it worked so well when running from my Windows machine so the entire application is already built.  We were going to have this app run from the windows machine but after some consideration thought it would benefit us to have it run directly from UNIX... until we ran into this road block.  It just doesn't seem to make much sense - but the fact that I can perform the transfer when executing it manually tells me there is something with this FTP API that UNIX doesn't like...

Did you debug FTP yet?

CEHJ, going to be working on this today.  I will post updates as soon as I can.  Thanks!

No luck running it as root.  Having some difficulties debugging too.  Trying to research bugs to see if this is a known issue.  There has to be something happening only because it is UNIX since the same exact code works fine when running from my Windows PC.  I may have to consider leaving the FTP out of my application entirely and having our UNIX programmer script the file transfer separately.  Either that or I have to leave this as is to be run manually on a windows system.  Still trying though...

Thanks.

Is there another FTP server you could test your code against?

infotechCDI, i'm glad you've got it sorted out. Don't worry about the points - i have quite a few already :-)

> but CHEJ is the only one who didn't suggest I use a different ftp client)

Where did I suggest you use a different client?

>suggest you try a different ftp client as afibarra originally suggested.

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone.  This was just a test program, but as I responded to afibarra, I have an entire app developed & tested (on Windows) using Commons Net 2.0 and I preferred to get the test working with this client so I wouldn't have to change my entire app.  The actual app uses the FTP for many other functions (not simply a single file transfer) so to me it was worth the time trying to get this client to work if I possibly could.  I do appreciate everyone's feedback though!