FTP using netrc file

This is what worked for me. Hope it works for you.
a) Create a .netrc file in your home directory.

# sample .netrc
machine sco login joeuser password MyPass123

**The permissions should be set to "600" with the chmod command.

(b) Next, create the following bourne shell script:

#cut here
#Make sure that it is executable
# In this example "sco" is the machine that I am ftp'ing to.
# 1) changes directory to /etc
# 2) executes an ls of the /etc directory on sco.
# 3)Toggles prompt mode to be turned off (it is on by default), otherwise, the
# ftp interface will prompt the user with a yes or no action for all file
# transfers.
# 4) Transfers the message of the day (/etc/motd) from the machine sco to the
# local machine under the name /tmp/sco.motd on my machine.
#
# note the eof's : when you have << eof you must have a eof on a line by itself
# in the shell script. This is a standard shell programming method when you
# wish to write shell scripts with interactive programs.
ftp sco << eof
cd /etc
ls
binary
hash
prompt
get motd /tmp/sco.motd
eof
# comments are allowed again...
echo all done with shell script
#cut here

To run this shell script perform these actions:

chmod 755 file_name_of_the_shell_script

type "file_name_of_the_shell_script" and the file will be transferred. Type
file_name_of_the_shell_script > /dev/null so that output will not echo to the
screen, or to a logfile, if you wish to log error messages.

The file is actually .netrc and it needs a permission of 400 (read only by owner). Also the file needs to be in the home directory.

Another possibility is to code the user/password combination in the script. Such as

ftp -n << EOF
user abc password
open server_name
put $1 /dir_to_ftp_to/$1
...
quit
EOF

1.
On SCO UNIX, root is not allowed to use ftp by default config. which is security wise.
Use .netrc and .rhosts in the regular user home directory - user that will use crontab.

2.
chmod 600 .netrc .rhosts in $HOME of user

3.
I have a script who uses ftp and/or rcp so root can use this script to transfer files.
Also it takes many files to transfer as parameters. You can GET or PUT files to another node.
Syntax:
u_ftp [put|get]

If you want it, email me.denis_berger@yahoo.com

try this link
http://www.landfield.com/faqs/unix-faq/faq/part3/index.html

section 3.9

Hope this help!