Re: FTP directory list information

Some FTP servers allow you to pass an argument to specify flags
like -l, etc, but that's not required by the official standard.

The FTP protocol allows for two types of "list" commands.   One is
guaranteed to only list the names of the files, and is designed for
use by FTP clients to handle requests like "mget" etc.  The other
lists the human-readable info, which usually includes a bit more detail,
like file sizes, permissions, etc.

The question that remains, then, is how to get your FTP client to issue
the "human-readable" listing instead of the "filenames only" listing...
You didn't say which client you're using...

For the default Windows (command-line) client I believe you type "dir" to
get the details.

It's the same way with the IBM supplied client in OS/400...   "dir" gives
the detailed list.

Under FreeBSD, however, "ls" gives details (since "nlist" just gives the
names)

I don't remember how it works in Linux, tho...  or any of the 3rd party
FTP clients...  so you'll have to experiment.



On Tue, 11 Jun 2002, David Morris wrote:

> Group,
>
> Does anyone know how to get the directory listing in FTP to show more
> information? I am actually looking for something like what you get from
> ls -l. It would be ideal if the ls ftp subcommand supported a -l option.
> I tried running something like ! qsh cmd('ls -l'), which works on the
> server, but from client, the command does not return anything. One
> workaround is to run the output of ls to a temporary file and then read
> the file.
>