ietf-822
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leading slash on DIRECTORY spec for ACCESS-TYPE="anon-ftp"

1993-03-17 15:51:06
Excerpts from direct: 17-Mar-93 Re: Agenda of the MIME Work.. Nathaniel
Borenstein(_at_)thu (549*)

(Here's a question:  when using "access-type=anon-ftp", should one put the
leading '/' on the directory spec, or leave it off?)

Are there any circumstances in which it would make a difference?   I
think most anon-ftp implementations could probably handle either.  But

Normally, the pathname after the host is relative to the ~ftp directory;
that is, the directory you connect to by default when you use ftp. 
However, there are a number of ftp servers which map absolute pathnames,
so that you have to first connect via ftp, then cd to something, like
/usr1/ftpfiles/fbh/, before you can access somefile.text.  This path is
*not* a subdirectory of ~ftp.  You can see the possible confusion...  I
suppose you should put the leading slash if the directory is absolute,
not if not.

Perhaps someone who knows more about FTP servers could inform us?

Bill

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