How to send an FTP request with the urllib.request.urlopen() function?

If an FTP server supports anonymous access, you can send an FTP request to retrieve a directory list, or download a file using the urllib.request.urlopen() function:

Here is a Python example on how to get a directory list from an anonymous FTP server:

>>> import urllib
>>> url='ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/'
>>> r = urllib.request.urlopen(url)
>>> b = r.read()
>>> print(b)
b'drwxrwxr-x   6 ftpuser  ftpusers       512 Jun 27  2012 ASC\r\n
  lrwxrwxrwx   1 ftpuser  ftpusers         3 Nov 20  2011 CXC -> ASC\r\n
  drwx------   2 ftpuser  ftpusers       512 May  2  2016 OLD\r\n
  ...

Here is a Python example on how to download a file from an anonymous FTP server:

>>> import urllib
>>> url='ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/cgrant/cti_temp.txt'
>>> r = urllib.request.urlopen(url)
>>> b = r.read()
>>> print(b)
>>> b'     2000.0801     -119.870
       2000.0804     -119.870
       2000.0857     -119.810
       2000.0860     -119.700
       2000.0874     -119.810
       2000.0877     -119.850
       2000.0930     -119.700
       2000.0932     -119.630
       ...

⇒ 'requests' Module - HTTP for Humans

⇐ urllib.request.Request Properties and Functions

⇑ 'urllib' Module - Internet Communication

⇑⇑ Python Tutorials