ftp of complicated directory structure (with tmp simlinks)

[Richard Harran <95rmwh@eng.cam.ac.uk>]

I am trying to completely copy a complicated directory structure using
ftp.  It has four levels of directories, all with lots of branches.  I
have a root directory on the target machine, and want to create the
directory structure, and copy all the files into the right places.  I
have tried filerunner, which throws its toys out at the first hurdle,
refusing to even transfer a single file.  I thought lftp's 'mirror'
command sounded hopeful, but this didn't want to play either, giving:
	get: Access failed: 550 <directory_name>: not a plain file
for every directory and subdirectory, and not mirror'ing anything.

My nearest thing to a solution involves old-fashioned ftp.  I have
recreated the directory structure on the target machine down to the
penultimate level (where the branching factor ~= 100).  I then have a
macro thus:

mkdir %i
cd %i
lcd %i
mput *.txt            // I have to do it this way, cos mkdir only works
mput *.wrd            // this way.  Also mput '*' for all these lines is
mput *.wav            // apparently an '?Invalid Command'
cd ..
lcd ..

I then open an xterm on the source machine and ls the correct directory,
and cut 'n' paste the output in short segments to arguments of the
macro.  This is not entirely satisfactory (BTW, if I run the macro with
more than about 20 args, ftp stops talking to me and segfaults or exits
or just generally sulks).  I can't redirect the output of ftp's ls
command, as it doesn't just list the filenames.  So at the moment, I am
running my macro about five times for each of the directories in the
penultimate level.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Cheers
Rich