To: uri@bunyip.com
In-Reply-To: hallam@alws.cern.ch's message of Thu, 3 Mar 1994 12:16:01 -0800 <94Mar3.121637pst.2803@golden.parc.xerox.com>
Subject: Re: RE:FTP URL mapping
From: Larry Masinter <masinter@parc.xerox.com>
Message-Id: <94Mar3.181958pst.2732@golden.parc.xerox.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 1994 18:19:50 PST
In an attempt to get some movement on this topic, I thought I would
pursue a concrete proposal, that extends what I thought Keith Moore's
proposed a while ago. Interpret:
as
ftp host.edu
cwd a
cwd b
cwd c
cwd d
type binary
retr e
if error (no such file), then:
nlist e
If you want to do something else, then `escape' the /, i.e., if you
want
ftp host.edu
retr a/b/c/d/e
then write
ftp://host.edu/a%2fb%2fc%2fd%2fe
This solves the problem of the ambiguity of /, but doesn't solve the
problem of how to determine whether you need `type text' vs `type
binary'. I propose the simple expedient of including "(text)" after
URLs that must be retrieved as text:
ftp://host.edu/a/b/c/d/e(text)
and that if the actual URL must have a '(text)' at the end of it,
again, escape it:
ftp://host.edu/a/b/c/d/e%20text%21
If you need an additional / in your first CWD, you have to escape it:
ftp://host.edu/%2fafs%2fafs.cmu.edu%2fsoftware%2fstuff
means
ftp host.edu
get /afs/afs.cmu.edu/software/stuff