# Confirming Buffer Output for GET Operation in node-red-contrib-ftp (No File System Writes)

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/confirming-buffer-output-for-get-operation-in-node-red-contrib-ftp-no-file-system-writes/96576>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [14 April 2025 22:54 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/confirming-buffer-output-for-get-operation-in-node-red-contrib-ftp-no-file-system-writes/96576 "2025-04-14T22:54:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AliEl4eikh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/aliel4eikh/32/100181_2.png) [@AliEl4eikh](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/AliEl4eikh)\
**Post date:** [14 April 2025 22:54 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/confirming-buffer-output-for-get-operation-in-node-red-contrib-ftp-no-file-system-writes/96576/1 "2025-04-14T22:54:28Z")

</div>

Hi Node-RED community,

I'm working on a flow that needs to read a file from a remote FTP server using node-red-contrib-ftp and output the content as a buffer or string for parsing, without writing to the file system (fs access is a no-go for security reasons).

The documentation for node-red-contrib-ftp suggests that setting msg.localFilename to a buffer is possible "msg.localFilename (buffer or the path/name of the file on the local machine - i.e. the one running NR)."

I am not sure how to do so. Has anyone successfully used node-red-contrib-ftp this way to get file content as a buffer without file system writes?

Any known quirks or alternative nodes that achieve this (buffer-based FTP read without fs access)?

Any insights or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kitori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@kitori](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/kitori)\
**Post date:** [15 April 2025 06:44 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/confirming-buffer-output-for-get-operation-in-node-red-contrib-ftp-no-file-system-writes/96576/2 "2025-04-15T06:44:01Z")

</div>

is an exec node with curl an option?  
i testet it with my webspace ftp server 😉

`curl --ssl-reqd -u "user:password" ftp://server/test/file.txt`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [14 July 2025 06:44 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/confirming-buffer-output-for-get-operation-in-node-red-contrib-ftp-no-file-system-writes/96576/3 "2025-07-14T06:44:14Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.