Synchronizing with live server via FTP - how to FTP to different folder then copy changes

Question

I'm trying to think of a good solution for automating the deployment of my .NET website to the live server via FTP.

The problem with using a simple FTP deployment tool is that FTPing the files takes some time. If I FTP directly into the website application's folder, the website has to be taken down whilst I wait for the files to all be transferred. What I do instead is manually FTP to a seperate folder, then once the transfer is completed, manually copy and paste the files into the real website folder.

To automate this process I am faced with a number of challenges:

• I don't want to FTP all the files - I only want to FTP those files that have been modified since the last deployment. So I need a program that can manage this.
• The files should be FTPed to a seperate directory, then copy+pasted into the correct destination onces complete.
• Correct security permissions need to be retained on the directories. If a directory is copied over, I need to be sure that the permissions will be retained (this could probably be solved by rerunning a script that applies the correct permissions).

So basically I think that the tool that I'm looking for would do a FTP sync via a temporary directory. Are there any tools that can manage these requirements in a reliable way?

Answer 1

I would prefer to use rsync for this purpose. But seems you are using windows OS here, some more effort is needed, cygwin stuff or something alike.