ftp: mget specifying path names

When doing ftp make it a bad habit to do
mget /mypathname/*.*
versus
cd /mypathname
mget *.*
The reason being is that some servers will support the mget
/mypathname/*.* and others won't.
I've seen this work
ls /mypathname/*.txt
return
thisfile.txt
thatfile.txt
However, notice the path name missing? So when you do a mget
/mypathname/*.* you may get
mget /mypathname/*.*
would you like to get thisfile.txt? y
no such file

The native ftp server for IBM i supports mget /directory/*.*. Linoma's
GoAnywhere does not. They have filed an enhancement request and they've
been pretty responsive in the past. However they do state that the RFC is
a little vague on whether or not the list should return the path name.
There is some concern about backward compatibility...
They did some checking around and they are seeing a mix of ftp sites that
go either way.


Rob Berendt