Trying to FTP file to and from a UNIX box.

What I need is a constant ftp connection while my program is called. Another program calls my program and I have to FTP a file for it. This other program can call mine 50 times for example, I have the code to connect and FTP what I need and close every time my program is called, but if it calls 50 times that is 50 connects and disconnects. Is there any way to open a connection with another program and utilize that connection for FTPing each time my program is called? Thanks

Inter-Process Communication is needed for something like what you are looking for, such as servers that listen on ports for requests, then carry them out. You will need a program that stays in memory call to call and can deal with multiple simultaneous calls. This not a trivial exercise and there are many ways to approach it. You could, for instance, have your 'server' (i.e., FTP manager) look for a file in a particular directory with some sort of information, then act on that information and delete the file. This, of course, requires that the process that writes the files (the one requesting the FTP service) does not overwrite other requests by different programs. It is a challenge to get it to work well in a low demand environment and very tricky to get right in a high demand environment. I prefer the socket approach because the OS will handle a lot of the queueing of the connections and if you don't have too much demand (say no more often than it takes to actually transfer your FTP files) then you don't even need to open up the can of worms called threading. Unless you are really having performance issues, I suggest you worry about something else. If this is really an issue, I would devote a large part of my effort to 'emulating' the FTP requests and see if there wasn't a way arround the need for it in the first place.

Good Luck!