Turn off interactive mode in FTP

Question

I am trying to automate the download of multiple files from an ftp source. These will span multiple years, dates, and from multiple sites that collected the data. Right now, I'm trying to make the basic download work. I can download a single file, but multiple files fail. I know when doing it manually, we would get to the directory, then

$>prompt
$>mget *.*

I have the following code as a first run at this...

import ftplib, subprocess
session = ftplib.FTP(host,user,password)
session.cwd(path)
subprocess.call("prompt")
files = session.nlst()
for f in files:
    print f
    session.retrbinary(("RETR" + f), open(f, 'wb').write)
session.quit()

Without the subprocess.call, the code pulls the first file, then errors out saying "command not understood." My assumption is that this is the box promptingg, since it does that if being downloaded manually. That's why I'm assuming I need the subprocess.call("prompt") command in there, as I would if handling this manually. However, when I have the subprocess added, it gives me an error that "The system cannot find the file specified" so that doesn't work, either. This error comes out of the subprocess.py module.

Answer 1

I guess I should post this here. Thank you to Greg Hewgill in the comments for the answer. I just needed a space after "Retr" in the line

session.retrbinary(("RETR " + f), open(f, 'wb').write)