Re: Proper way to comment an FTP script

Vern, your post cleared it up.

NOOP is a client command.

When I connect from our IBM i to their Windows FTP server, NOOP works and
!REM does not work.

When I connect from my Windows desktop to their Windows FTP server, !REM
works and NOOP does not work.

So NOOP it is.






On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 7:59 AM, Vernon Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Hi Jeff

Maybe try a couple things - the first should tell you what subcommands are
available on the remote FTP server -

quote help

You will get different results from different servers, but you should at
least get a list of ___server___ subcommands.

Here is an example when the "remote" server is loopback - the IBM i itself:

quote help
214-Server-FTP commands follow:
214-Unsupported commands marked with an *.
214-ABOR, ACCT*, ADDM, ADDV, ALLO*, APPE, AUTH, CDUP, CRTL, CRTP, CRTS,
214-CWD, DELE, DLTF, DLTL, EPRT, EPSV, FEAT, HELP, LIST, MKD, MODE,
214-NLST, NOOP, OPTS, PASS, PASV, PBSZ, PORT, PROT, PWD, QUIT, RCMD,
214-REIN, REST*, RETR, RMD, RNFR, RNTO, SITE, STAT, STOR, STOU, STRU,
214-SYST, TIME, TYPE, USER, XCUP, XCWD, XMKD.

quote is used to execute a server subcommand - so I see that NOOP is in
the list of supported commands (no asterisk).

So running quote noop in the client does this -

quote noop
200 OK.

NOOP is also a ___client___ subcommand, as just running it shows -

noop
200 OK.

And the following also worked in the IBM i FTP client -

noop /* this is a comment */
200 OK.

This last subcommand probably should not even be sent to the remote FTP
server - I can't guarantee that, but I believe it is the case. But we do
get a return code, and I don't know from which server it comes.

One could also do something like this -

quote rcmd /* this is a comment */
250 Command /* this is a comment */ successful.

this tries to use rcmd to run the "comment" on the remote server - the
return will likely vary but will do nothing on the far end.

rcmd is not supported on every system, it is a security hole - but in any
case it should be TRIED - so your script will have the comment and your
output might have some kind of error message that can be ignored.

HTH
Vern


On 12/2/2016 6:10 AM, Jeff Crosby wrote:

FTP client is our IBM i.

FTP server on their end is Windows.


On Fri, Dec 2, 2016 at 12:16 AM, Scott Klement <pctech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Jeff,

What FTP *client* software are you using? The IBM FTP Client on IBM i?
Or (since this is the PCTECH list) the Microsoft command-prompt FTP
software?

Or one of the other zillion FTP clients for windows? Or something else?

The only reason the FTP server software might matter is when the client
scripts don't support comments. When they don't support comments, then
you
have to resort to using some "harmless" command that gets sent to the
server but is ignored (like rcmd with /* */ or NOOP).

But if you use a client software that supports comments, then it'll work
with any server.



On 12/1/2016 12:40 PM, Jeff Crosby wrote:

For documentation/logging purposes, I would like to put some comments in

an
FTP script. I found the following:

http://www.itjungle.com/mgo/mgo021403-story02.html

which suggests several ways. It is implied that the FTP server type
(IBM
i, Windows, Linux, etc) has a bearing on what is acceptable. I would
like
to use a way that works no matter what the server side is. Antyone
know?

Thanks.


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