FTP From PL/SQL

Sometimes it's preferable to trigger FTP jobs directly from PL/SQL rather than rely on CRON or AT. This article contains a brief description of the two methods I use.

The first method relies on a java stored procedure, described in Shell Commands From PL/SQL, which can be used to trigger a shell script to perform the transfer. The shell script may look like the following:

#! /bin/ksh

# Move to appropriate directory on local server
cd /extracts

# FTP all files in directory
ftp -inv ftp.company.com <<EOF
user ftpuser ftppassword
# Move to appropriate directory on remote server.
cd /loads
ascii
mput *.*
bye
EOF

The second approach uses a combination of the UTL_TCP and UTL_FILE packages to create a simple FTP API ( ftp.pks, ftp.pkb). Once the API is loaded into the appropriate schema simple FTP commands can be initiated as follows:

CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY my_docs AS '/u01/app/oracle/';
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE 1000000
@c:\ftp.pks
@c:\ftp.pkb

-- Retrieve an ASCII file from a remote FTP server.
DECLARE
  l_conn  UTL_TCP.connection;
BEGIN
  l_conn := ftp.login('ftp.company.com', '21', 'ftpuser', 'ftppassword');
  ftp.ascii(p_conn => l_conn);
  ftp.get(p_conn      => l_conn,
          p_from_file => '/u01/app/oracle/test.txt',
          p_to_dir    => 'MY_DOCS',
          p_to_file   => 'test_get.txt');
  ftp.logout(l_conn);
  utl_tcp.close_all_connections;
END;
/

-- Send an ASCII file to a remote FTP server.
DECLARE
  l_conn  UTL_TCP.connection;
BEGIN
  l_conn := ftp.login('ftp.company.com', '21', 'ftpuser', 'ftppassword');
  ftp.ascii(p_conn => l_conn);
  ftp.put(p_conn      => l_conn,
          p_from_dir  => 'MY_DOCS',
          p_from_file => 'test_get.txt',
          p_to_file   => '/u01/app/oracle/test_put.txt');
  ftp.logout(l_conn);
  utl_tcp.close_all_connections;
END;
/

-- Retrieve a binary file from a remote FTP server.
DECLARE
  l_conn  UTL_TCP.connection;
BEGIN
  l_conn := ftp.login('ftp.company.com', '21', 'ftpuser', 'ftppassword');
  ftp.binary(p_conn => l_conn);
  ftp.get(p_conn      => l_conn,
          p_from_file => '/u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0.1.0/sysman/reporting/gif/jobs.gif',
          p_to_dir    => 'MY_DOCS',
          p_to_file   => 'jobs_get.gif');
  ftp.logout(l_conn);
  utl_tcp.close_all_connections;
END;
/

-- Send a binary file to a remote FTP server.
DECLARE
  l_conn  UTL_TCP.connection;
BEGIN
  l_conn := ftp.login('ftp.company.com', '21', 'ftpuser', 'ftppassword');
  ftp.binary(p_conn => l_conn);
  ftp.put(p_conn      => l_conn,
          p_from_dir  => 'MY_DOCS',
          p_from_file => 'jobs_get.gif',
          p_to_file   => '/u01/app/oracle/jobs_put.gif');
  ftp.logout(l_conn);
  utl_tcp.close_all_connections;
END;
/

-- Get a directory listing from a remote FTP server.
DECLARE
  l_conn  UTL_TCP.connection;
  l_list  ftp.t_string_table;
BEGIN
  l_conn := ftp.login('ftp.company.com', '21', 'ftpuser', 'ftppassword');
  ftp.list(p_conn   => l_conn,
           p_dir   => '/u01/app/oracle',
           p_list  => l_list);
  ftp.logout(l_conn);
  utl_tcp.close_all_connections;
  
  IF l_list.COUNT > 0 THEN
    FOR i IN l_list.first .. l_list.last LOOP
      DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(i || ': ' || l_list(i));
    END LOOP;
  END IF;
END;
/

-- Rename a file on a remote FTP server.
DECLARE
  l_conn  UTL_TCP.connection;
BEGIN
  l_conn := ftp.login('ftp.company.com', '21', 'ftpuser', 'ftppassword');
  ftp.rename(p_conn => l_conn,
             p_from => '/u01/app/oracle/dba/shutdown',
             p_to   => '/u01/app/oracle/dba/shutdown.old');
  ftp.logout(l_conn);
  utl_tcp.close_all_connections;
END;
/

-- Delete a file on a remote FTP server.
DECLARE
  l_conn  UTL_TCP.connection;
BEGIN
  l_conn := ftp.login('ftp.company.com', '21', 'ftpuser', 'ftppassword');
  ftp.delete(p_conn => l_conn,
             p_file => '/u01/app/oracle/dba/temp.txt');
  ftp.logout(l_conn);
  utl_tcp.close_all_connections;
END;
/

-- Create a directory on a remote FTP server.
DECLARE
  l_conn  UTL_TCP.connection;
BEGIN
  l_conn := ftp.login('ftp.company.com', '21', 'ftpuser', 'ftppassword');
  ftp.mkdir(p_conn => l_conn,
            p_dir => '/u01/app/oracle/test');
  ftp.logout(l_conn);
  utl_tcp.close_all_connections;
END;
/

-- Remove a directory from a remote FTP server.
DECLARE
  l_conn  UTL_TCP.connection;
BEGIN
  l_conn := ftp.login('ftp.company.com', '21', 'ftpuser', 'ftppassword');
  ftp.rmdir(p_conn => l_conn,
            p_dir  => '/u01/app/oracle/test');
  ftp.logout(l_conn);
  utl_tcp.close_all_connections;
END;
/

The basic functions are implemented using LOBs to allow FTP without having to access files on the local filesystem. The get and put procedures string these together to form a complete job using all the functions. If a straight forward FTP to, or from, the local filesystem is required it is more efficient to use the GET_DIRECT and PUT_DIRECT procedures as they avoid the temporary LOBs.

The current implementation has the following issues:

The mput and mget operations are not supported.
The implementation of binary transfers relies on UTL_FILE features only available in Oracle9i Release 2.
There is no support for ASCII mode in the PUT_DIRECT procedure.

Thanks to Hans van Doormalen for noticing I wasn't closing my passive connections. I do now :)

For more information see:

Hope this helps. Regards Tim...

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