Python shell script that utilizes the excellent LFTP to create a mirror between a local directory and a remote ftp site.

py_lftp.py

#!/usr/bin/python

'''
©2012 Paul Castle
Very crude but functional early edition, will expand in the future.
I run this script on a 3 day cron to keep my personal wiki backed up to my 
local development server. LFTP is very good at retaining permissions between
mirrors.

User/pass variables require base64 encoded attributes to avoid shoulder-surfers. 
IF you don't want b64, remove base64.b64decode routines from the mirrorftp 
function.

TODO
	- Add option for mirror reversal
	- Expand options for compression 
'''
import os, base64, time, sys

# Set Options
ftp = {
	'host' : 'ftp://yourhost.com',
	'user' : '',
	'pass' : '',
	'target' : '/home/target/folder',
	'source' : '/source/remote/folder',
	'exclude' : '--exclude-glob *.example',
	'options' : '--continue --verbose --delete --parallel=4 --no-symlinks --use-cache'
}

def mirrorftp():
	execstr = ("lftp -c \"\nset ssl:verify-certificate no\nopen %s\nuser %s %s\nlcd %s\nmirror %s %s %s %s\nbye\n\"") % (ftp['host'],base64.b64decode(ftp['user']),base64.b64decode(ftp['pass']),ftp['target'],ftp['options'],ftp['exclude'],ftp['source'],ftp['target'])
	os.system(execstr)

# running script as root? warn if not
if os.geteuid() != 0:
	print ("Warning!\nNot running as root!\nYou may get permission errors.")

#mirror ftp
fst = time.time()
print "Starting a Mirror Backup of "+ftp['host']
mirrorftp()
fet = time.time() - fst

#Compress archive
print ("Compressing archive")
zst = time.time()
os.system = ("tar -zcvf %s.tar.gz %s") % ("mirroredlftp",ftp['target'])
zet = time.time() - zst

# report
print ("Backup Complete! FTP-Backup %s seconds elapsed, Compression took %s seconds.") % (str(round(fet,2)),str(round(zet,2)))