Re: ftp protocol question

From: Barry Margolin (barry.margolin_at_level3.com)
Date: 04/28/03 

Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 15:27:07 GMT

In article <newscache$cr22eh$iab$1@frodo.fserver.locale>,
Giovanni <gcasanoNOSPAM@freemail.it> wrote:
>In article <3EAD1B1B.B55D4B94@lmco.com>, Joe Durusau wrote:
>>Giovanni wrote:
>>> I have a tiny question concerning ftp protocol and I'd like to get a smart
>>> answer:
>>>
>>> If I connect to an ftp server and I give a command like:
>>>
>>> rm *
>>>
>>> What happens if I disconnect from server (i.e. modem hangs, ecc...) while
>>> command has not yet ended?
>>> Does it continue to delete files even if I am not connected or does it stop
>>> at the disconnect time?
>>>
>>
>> In general, on most systems, if a parent process dies, the
>>children also die. There can be exceptions, and it really doesn't have
>>anything to do with frp as such. If you name your specific OS, I'm
>>sure someone can give you a better answer.
>
>Well, OS specific is Windows NT/2000.

Then why are you asking in a Unix newsgroup?

Anyway, the FTP protocol doesn't provide any way to delete by wildcard.
The way a command like that has to work is that the FTP client performs an
NLST command to get all the filenames that match the wildcard, and then
send a separate DELE command for each filename. So if the connection is
dropped in the middle, it won't be able to delete any more files. 

-- 
Barry Margolin, barry.margolin@level3.com
Genuity Managed Services, a Level(3) Company, Woburn, MA
*** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups.
Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group.

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