Re: FTP Issue

[Scott Klement <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Matthew,

> The problem we are experiancing is with FTP on the 400.  It appears that 
> all packed decimal fields send special characters to the receiving 
> system.  The receiving system is running UNIX.

FTP is a file transfer program. That's all it is -- a program that 
transfers data from one system to another.

This may seem confusing to someone who is used to Client Access' file 
transfer.  Despite being called "File transfer" Client Access does more 
than just transfer the data, it also changes the file format from one 
thing into another. It's doing two steps for you -- both converting the 
data to another format, and copying it over a network...

FTP doesn't do that.  It just copies the data, nothing else.  Oh sure, it 
can do two very simple transformations -- it can translate into ASCII, and 
it can change a text file from one end-of-line convention to another.  But 
that's all.

If you want to convert your database into a text file, you must convert it 
FIRST, then transfer it with FTP.

To do that, use the CPYTOIMPF command to convert the database fields into 
a text file.  Then, after that's done, use FTP to transfer the text file 
to the Unix machine. If you like, you can write a CL program that does 
both steps at once.

The release of OS/400 shouldn't make much difference. It's possible that 
the CPYTOIMPF command has had some new options added (though, I can't 
think of any!) but FTP hasn't changed.