# ftp ambiguity

Clifford Neuman (bcn@ISI.EDU)
Thu, 28 Jul 1994 05:57:14 -0700

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    Date: Thu, 28 Jul 1994 05:57:14 -0700

    Message-Id: <199407281257.AA25093@darkstar.isi.edu>

    From: Clifford Neuman <bcn@ISI.EDU>

    To: mitra@pandora.sf.ca.us

    Subject: ftp ambiguity

From: mitra@pandora.sf.ca.us (Mitra)
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 1994 01:28:41 GMT

Now that we have specific instructions for accessing ftp resources,
I am concerned that there may be another ambiguity, or at least
a clarification needed.

I think that some pe4ople interpret

ftp://aaa.bbb.ccc/this.file

as a retrieval of /this.file and others as as a retrieval of this.file
often these are the same, but if the anonymous ftp doesnt log in
to its root (many enter at the pub directory) then this is ambiguous.

It is eve nwrse than that.

ftp://aaa.bbb.ccc/this.file

and

ftp://aaa.bbb.ccc//this.file

are in fact the same because the inital segment of the path /this.file
is the null string, which causes a cd to ones home directory, not the
root. Thus, if you want to get /this.file, you really need to say:

ftp://aaa.bbb.ccc/%2fthis.file

So, this definitely needs to be clarified in the text if this is what
people feel the interpretation should be. Personally, I find
requiring the %2f for the initial slash a bit too counter intuitive,
but if this is what people want, I feel this anomaly must be spelled
out in the text.

~ Cliff

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