Message-Id: <199312052340.SAA13429@wilma.cs.utk.edu>
From: Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>
To: John C Klensin <KLENSIN@infoods.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: a better ftp URL
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 05 Dec 1993 18:29:20 EST."
<755134160.372089.KLENSIN@INFOODS.UNU.EDU>
Date: Sun, 05 Dec 1993 18:40:50 -0500
I think my main point about the FTP URL is that it is important
that it include precise instructions as to what sequence
of USER/PASS/TYPE/CWD/RETR is required. We should not require
the client to employ heuristics to figure out how to get to the
right directory, and neither should we require the server's FTP
server to pretend that it has a UNIX-like file system.
If it is important to be compatible with existing URLs, then
we will need a way to distinguish between a '/' used as a separator
between filename and directory, from a '/' that may appear
within a file or directory name. If '/' is chosen for one of
these, '%2f' seems like the obvious choice for the other one.
Encoding issues aside, I agree with you and Marshall that the
set of parameters used with the anon-ftp access type of the
MIME message/external-body content-type is the right way to go.
Keith