Re: FTP to MS ftp server

[Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com>]

Yuri Khan <yuri.v.khan@gmail.com> writes:

> On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 2:42 PM, Guido Van Hoecke <guivho@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It is regrettable that the ftp directory listing of MS ftp servers often
>> use the MS-DOS directory listing format rather than the standard unix
>> format.
>
> What is regrettable is that the FTP protocol did not *have* a standard
> listing format until it was too late. At the time FTP was invented
> (RFC 765, published in 1980), no one had thought that 30 years later
> people will want to access FTP servers with any client programs other
> than Telnet and the interactive command-line FTP client.

As far as I know, there's only one MS-DOS format, and luckily, it is
occurring less frequently that the UNIX format. Microsoft explains how
users of their servers can choose either format:
http://www.iis.net/configreference/system.applicationhost/sites/sitedefaults/ftpserver/directorybrowse

So again, I would be happy if Emacs would grok this MS-DOS format.

> The LIST command in the protocol is not required to adhere to any
> particular format; it is meant for human user consumption and it is
> expected that users will be able to read any reasonable format. RFC
> 3659, published in 2007, adds the MLSD command which does specify a
> machine-readable format.
>
> The questions, then, are: whether the server you are interested in
> does in fact implement RFC 3659, and whether Emacs can use MLSD

I have no idea about nor control over this capability of those servers.

> instead of LIST in order to fetch listings.
>
> You might also see if you can migrate to a different protocol, such as
> SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol, not Simple File Transfer Protocol;
> unlikely on a Windows server), or WebDAV, or god-forbid CIFS (also
> sometimes known as SMB), all of which are better suited for file
> collection browsing than FTP.

Again, I can only use what the servers provide as standard interface,
i.e. plain old FTP, unfortunately using MS-DOS format, and I would like
to access these servers from within Emacs.


Respectfully,


Guido

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