8.2.3 dpkg-ftp

This is an older access method for dselect. It can be invoked from within dselect, thereby allowing a user the ability to download files and install them directly in one step. To do this, select the ftp access method in dselect (option 0) and specify the remote host name and directory. dpkg-ftp will then automatically download the files that are selected (either in this session of dselect or earlier ones).

Note that, unlike the mirror program, dpkg-ftp does not grab everything at a mirror site. Rather, it downloads only those files which you have selected (when first starting up dpkg-ftp), and which need to be updated.

dpkg-ftp is somewhat obsolete. You should use the APT access method with ftp:// URLs in sources.list instead.