Re: SFTP Questions

I'm getting ready to do my 1st SFTP from the iSeries.  Up until
yesterday afternoon I was under the impression that I had to send my
db2/400 file to the IFS and then run a PC based SFTP package to send the
file.  Yesterday I found out that the FTP command can be launched as:
       FTP RMTSYS('FTP Target System') POST('12') SECCNN(*SSL)
I'm told that *SSL starts FTP as secure FTP.  If that's the case I don't
see a reason why you couldn't override the STDIN file to a source member
name and call the command.
Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jeff Young
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 2:54 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: SFTP Questions

Bill,
I will be using SFTP, not FTP.
Can I still do this?

From what I read, I need to have the script in a special file on the

IFS.

Thanks,

On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 2:28 PM, Bill Erhardt
<berhardt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

FYI,
You can key the FTP script as a source file member and override the
STDIN file to have FTP read the source member.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jeff Young
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 2:26 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: SFTP Questions

Scott,
I did not make myself clear.
I was refering to the sFTP commands being placed in a flat file and

then

copied to the IFS for use as a batch file in sFTP.

The data file is being created as a flat file with the pipe delimiter.
If
I use the CPYTOIMPF command to place the file in the IFS, then I

should

be
able to send that file to the vendor.

Again, I thank you for taking the time to respond and help resolve the
flaws in my understanding of how this works.


On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 1:51 PM, Scott Klement
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

On 1/19/2012 9:09 AM, Jeff Young wrote:

I have a customer that needs to transmit files using SFTP to their

vendor

on a periodic basis.  Each transmission will have the same file

name

but

different member names.

I've never had good luck with sending database members with sftp.
Please remember that sftp is a Unix tool.  It knows nothing of

features

that only exist on IBM i (such as members).

Since this is an automated task anyway, have the program that's
generating the file write it into a stream file object (*STMF).

Given that I know next to nothing about setting up or using SFTP,

what

to I

need to do to configure the IBM i to communicate with the server

and

can

I

use this same name format in the SFTP command to send the data?

You need TCP/IP configured and working. You need port 22 open in the
firewall. You need PASE, QShell, and 5733-SC1 base and option 1

installed.

sftp is a Unix tool, it does not have any IBM i native features like

FTP

does.  All naming MUST be in IFS format (though, it looks like you

were

using that with FTP anyway.)

Unlike FTP, files cannot be converted... they will be sent as-is.

So

if

your data is in fixed-length record-based EBCDIC, and you want it to

be

in stream-oriented ASCII or Unicode, then you need to convert it

prior

to calling sftp.

If I create a flat file on the i and then use either the CPYTOIMPF

or

CPYTOSTMF commands to place the file on the IFS, are there any

special

parms that I need?

Sftp/scp doesn't know or care what the format of your file is.  As

far

as sftp/scp is concerned, it's a big string of bytes. It will copy

those

bytes to another computer, as-is.

CPYTOSTMF/CPYTOIMPF are tools for converting the format of your

data.

Therefore, no parameter you specify will matter to scp/sftp. It

doesn't

matter to sftp, because sftp doesn't care what the format of your

data

is.

However, the folks who are receiving your file will care. You need

to

find out what format THEY want the file in, and then use an

appropriate

tool (or write one) to get it in that format.

I know that I can use the Unix API's to create the file directly,

but I

need to code this so that someone who is not familiar with using

API's

can

maintain it.
The data is plain text with a | character separating fields.

I have no problem with using the CPYTOIMPF tool for this, that's a

good

method...   but I disagree with your philosophy!

For what you're doing, CPYTOIMPF will convert a database file into a
pipe-delimited file with one command call. If the format of data

that

it

produces is what you want, then why /wouldn't/ you use it?

Reinventing

the wheel is pointless, unless you're going build a better wheel!

But the philosophy that "I think the IFS APIs will work better, but

I

won't use them because someone else might have to learn a skill" is
absolutely idiotic.  Sorry for being so blunt, but that's how I

feel.

I'm mean seriously... another programmer is going to see you calling
APIs named "open", "write" and "close" and they're going to be
completely stumped?  How are you call the completely obscure write()
API?? Nobody will ever figure out what that does???  Really?

My suggestion is to have an RPG program that outputs a normal,
externally defined PF that contains the fields you want, and the

records

are in the sequence you want.  Then use CPYTOIMPF to convert it to a
pipe-delimited file.

Custom-building the pipe-delimited format in your file, then writing

it

to a flat file, and converting it to a stream file with CPYTOSTMF is
moronic, and shouldn't be done.  If you're going to do the custom
formatting in your program, then it should also write it to the

stream

file.

Adding extra work and extra complexity so that someone else doesn't

have

to learn some trivial new technique is stupid.
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Jeff Young
Sr. Programmer Analyst
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Sr. Programmer Analyst
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