keeping a Net::FTP connection

[Paul Corr <corr@voicenet.com>]

Folks,

In recent days, I've experienced an odd problem with a Net::FTP script. I
have a script that uses Net::FTP to pick up between 95 and 300 small 
files.  Often, the script will run successfully without complaint, getting
all the files. But occasionally, it generates many complaints to the
screen and stops getting files at the point that the complaints begin. It
appears to lose the ftp connection.

Here's an example of the error from my notes:
---
Can't get '_tb_bc-hungryrabbits(2).htm': Bad file descriptor at
process_krtfeed.pl line 402.
Syswrite on closed filehandle at
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/i386-freebsd/Net/Cmd.pm line 172.
Use of uninitialized value at
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/i386-freebsd/Net/Cmd.pm line 172.
---

After guessing that the parens in the file name might cause trouble, I
modify the code to skip such files, but the behavior continued. 

As I said, the behavior is intermittent. I'm wondering if anyone has any
best practices tips for maintaining or checking the ftp connection. I'm
wondering if maybe I should add something more than 'warn' to check the
connection in the 'ftp->get' line in the script below.

Any feedback is appreciated. 

Paul
----

-------- 
Here's the (excerpted) code:

#---
# set some script variables and values
my $now         = time();     # non-leap seconds since epoch 
my $age         = 86400 * 1;  # '1' for one day, etc. 
                              # x 60 * 60 * 24 secs/day 

# connect to ftp server containing feed files 
$ftp = Net::FTP->new($host,debug => 1); 
$rc  = $ftp->login($user,$pass); # open connection 
die "Unable to establish a connection $!" unless $rc; 
@allfiles = list_all_files();
get_todays_files(@allfiles); # sub checks date, retrieves files 
$ftp->quit; # close connection 

exit(0);

sub list_all_files {
     @ftpfiles = $ftp->ls("*.htm");
     foreach my $file (@ftpfiles){
         push(@skippedfiles,$file) and next if( $file =~ m|\(\d+\)\.htm|
);
         push(@goodfiles,$file);
     }
     return @goodfiles;
}

sub get_todays_files { 
     # get files from ftp site
     my @curfiles = @_;               # all files passed in 
     return unless(scalar @curfiles); # return if no files
     my @todaysfiles; 
     foreach my $file (@curfiles){
         next unless( $ftp->size($file) > 300 ); # min size
         next unless( ($now - $ftp->mdtm($file) ) < $age );
         push (@todaysfiles,$file);
     }
     foreach my $file (@todaysfiles){ 
         $ftp->get($file)
             or warn "Can't get '$file': $!" and next;
         sleep 1; # pause seconds between 'gets' 
         $retrieved++; 
     } 
}
#---



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