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1 perry 1 ncftp
2 !!!ncftp
3 NAME
4 SYNOPSIS
5 DESCRIPTION
6 FILES
7 ENVIRONMENT
8 BUGS
9 AUTHOR
10 SEE ALSO
11 THANKS
12 APOLOGIES
13 ----
14 !!NAME
15
16
17 ncftp - Browser program for the File Transfer Protocol
18 !!SYNOPSIS
19
20
21 __ncftp__ [[''host'']
22
23
24 __ncftp__
25 [[''ftp://host.name/directory/'']
26 !!DESCRIPTION
27
28
29 The purpose of ''ncftp'' is to provide a powerful and
30 flexible interface to the Internet standard ''File Transfer
31 Protocol''. It is intended to replace the stock ''ftp''
32 program that comes with the system.
33
34
35 Although the program appears to be rather spartan, you'll
36 find that ''ncftp'' has a wealth of valuable performance
37 and usage features. The program was designed with an
38 emphasis on usability, and it does as much as it can for you
39 automatically so you can do what you expect to do with a
40 file transfer program, which is transfer files between two
41 interconnected systems.
42
43
44 Some of the cooler features include progress meters,
45 filename completion, command-line editing, background
46 processing, auto-resume downloads, bookmarking, cached
47 directory listings, host redialing, working with firewalls
48 and proxies, downloading entire directory trees, etc.,
49 etc.
50
51
52 The ''ncftp'' distribution comes with the useful utility
53 programs ncftpget(1) and ncftpput(1) which
54 were designed to do command-line FTP. In particular, they
55 are very handy for shell scripts. This version of
56 ''ncftp'' no longer does command-line FTP, since the main
57 ''ncftp'' program is more of a browser-type
58 program.
59
60
61 __OPTIONS__
62
63
64 The program allows you to specify a host or directory URL on
65 the command line. This is a synonym for running ''ncftp''
66 and then using the ''open'' command. A few command-line
67 flags are allowed with this mode:
68
69
70 __-u__ ''XX''
71
72
73 Use username ''XX'' instead of anonymous.
74
75
76 __-p__ ''XX''
77
78
79 Use password ''XX'' with the username.
80
81
82 __-j__ ''XX''
83
84
85 Use account ''XX'' in supplement to the username and
86 password (deprecated).
87
88
89 __-P__ ''XX''
90
91
92 Use port number ''XX'' instead of the default FTP service
93 port (21).
94
95
96 __INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMAND SHELL__
97
98
99 Upon running the program you are presented a command prompt
100 where you type commands to the program's shell. Usually you
101 will want to open a remote filesystem to transfer files to
102 and from your local machine's filesystem. To do that, you
103 need to know the symbolic name of the remote system, or its
104 ''Internet Protocol'' (IP) address. For example, a
105 symbolic name might be ``typhoon.unl.edu,'' and its IP
106 address could be ``129.93.33.24.'' To open a connection to
107 that system, you use the program's ''open''
108 command:
109
110
111 open typhoon.unl.edu
112 open 129.93.33.24
113
114
115 Both of these try to open the machine called typhoon at the
116 ''University of Nebraska''. Using the symbolic name is
117 the preferred way, because IP addresses may change without
118 notice, while the symbolic names usually stay the
119 same.
120
121
122 When you open a remote filesystem, you need to have
123 permission. The ''FTP Protocol'''s authentication system
124 is very similar to that of logging in to your account. You
125 have to give an account name, and its password for access to
126 that account's files. However, most remote systems that have
127 anything you might be interested in don't require an account
128 name for use. You can often get anonymous access to a remote
129 filesystem and exchange files that have been made publicly
130 accessible. The program attempts to get anonymous permission
131 to a remote system by default. What actually happens is that
132 the program tries to use ``anonymous'' as the account name,
133 and when prompted for a password, uses your E-mail address
134 as a courtesy to the remote system's maintainer. You can
135 have the program try to use a specific account also. That
136 will be explained later.
137
138
139 After the ''open'' command completes successfully, you
140 are connected to the remote system and logged in. You should
141 now see the command prompt change to reflect the name of the
142 current remote directory. To see what's in the current
143 remote directory, you can use the program's ''ls'' and
144 ''dir'' commands. The former is terse, preferring more
145 remote files in less screen space, and the latter is more
146 verbose, giving detailed information about each item in the
147 directory.
148
149
150 You can use the program's ''cd'' command to move to other
151 directories on the remote system. The cd command behaves
152 very much like the command of the same name in the
153 ''Bourne'' and ''Korn'' shell.
154
155
156 The purpose of the program is to exchange data with other
157 systems. You can use the program's ''get'' command to
158 copy a file from the remote system to your local
159 system:
160
161
162 get README.txt
163
164
165 The program will display the progress of the transfer on the
166 screen, so you can tell how much needs to be done before the
167 transfer finishes. When the transfer does finish, then you
168 can enter more commands to the program's command
169 shell.
170
171
172 You can use the program's ''put'' command to copy a file
173 from your system to the remote system:
174
175
176 put something.tar
177
178
179 When you are finished using the remote system, you can open
180 another one or use the ''quit''
181
182
183 Before quitting, you may want to save the current FTP
184 session's settings for later. You can use the
185 ''bookmark'' command to save an entry into your
186 $HOME/.ncftp/bookmarks file. When you use the
187 ''bookmark'' command, you also specify a bookmark name,
188 so the next time instead of opening the full hostname you
189 can use the name of the bookmark. A bookmark acts just like
190 one for your web browser, so it saves the remote directory
191 you were in, the account name you used, etc., and other
192 information it learned so that the next time you use the
193 bookmark it should require as little effort from you as
194 possible.
195
196
197 __COMMAND REFERENCE__
198
199
200 help
201
202
203 The first command to know is ''help''. If you just
204 type
205
206
207 help
208
209
210 from the command shell, the program prints the names of all
211 of the supported commands. From there, you can get specific
212 help for a command by typing the command after, for
213 example:
214
215
216 help open
217
218
219 prints information about the ''open''
220 command.
221
222
223 ascii
224
225
226 This command sets the transfer type to ASCII text. This is
227 useful for text-only transfers because the concept of text
228 files differs between operating systems. For example on
229 UNIX, a text file denotes line breaks with the linefeed
230 character, while on MS-DOS a line break is denoted by both a
231 carriage return character and a line feed character.
232 Therefore, for data transfers that you consider the data as
233 text you can use ''ascii'' to ensure that both the remote
234 system and local system translate accordingly. The default
235 transfer type that ''ncftp'' uses is not ASCII, but
236 straight binary.
237
238
239 bgget and bgput
240
241
242 These commands correspond to the ''get'' and ''put''
243 commands explained below, except that they do the job in the
244 background. Normally when you do a ''get'' then the
245 program does the download immediately, and does not return
246 control to you until the download completes. The background
247 transfers are nice because you can continue browsing the
248 remote filesystem and even open other systems. In fact, they
249 are done by a daemon process, so even if you log off your
250 UNIX host the daemon should still do your transfers. The
251 daemon will also automatically continue to retry the
252 transfers until they finish. To tell when background jobs
253 have finished, you have to examine the
254 ''$HOME/.ncftp/spool/log'' file, or run the ''jobs''
255 command from within ''NcFTP''.
256
257
258 Both the ''bgget'' and ''bgput'' commands allow you to
259 schedule when to do the transfers. They take a ``-@''
260 parameter, whose argument is a date of the form
261 YYYYMMDDhhmmss (four digit year, month, day, hour, minute,
262 second). For example, to schedule a download at 3 AM on
263 November 6, you could try:
264
265
266 bgget -@ 19971106030000 /pub/idstuff/quake/q2_100.zip
267
268
269 bgstart
270
271
272 This command tells ''ncftp'' to immediately start the
273 background transfers you've requested, which simply runs a
274 copy of the ''ncftpbatch'' program which is responsible
275 for the background jobs. Normally the program will start the
276 background job as soon as you close the current site, open a
277 new site, or quit the program. The reason for this is
278 because since so many users still use slow dialup links that
279 starting the transfers would slow things to a crawl, making
280 it difficult to browse the remote system. An added bonus of
281 starting the background job when you close the site is that
282 ''ncftp'' can pass off that open connection to the
283 ''ncftpbatch'' program. That is nice when the site is
284 always busy, so that the background job doesn't have to wait
285 and get re-logged on to do its job.
286
287
288 binary
289
290
291 Sets the transfer type to raw binary, so that no translation
292 is done on the data transferred. This is the default anyway,
293 since most files are in binary.
294
295
296 bookmark
297
298
299 Saves the current session settings for later use. This is
300 useful to save the remote system and remote working
301 directory so you can quickly resume where you left off some
302 other time. The bookmark data is stored in your
303 ''$HOME/.ncftp/bookmarks'' file.
304
305
306 bookmarks
307
308
309 Lists the contents of your ''$HOME/.ncftp/bookmarks''
310 file in a human-readable format. You can use this command to
311 recall the bookmark name of a previously saved bookmark, so
312 that you can use the ''open'' command with
313 it.
314
315
316 cat
317
318
319 Acts like the ``/bin/cat'' ''UNIX'' command, only for
320 remote files. This downloads the file you specify and dumps
321 it directly to the screen. You will probably find the
322 ''page'' command more useful, since that lets you view
323 the file one screen at a time instead of printing the entire
324 file at once.
325
326
327 cd
328
329
330 Changes the working directory on the remote host. Use this
331 command to move to different areas on the remote server. If
332 you just opened a new site, you might be in the root
333 directory. Perhaps there was a directory called
334 ``/pub/news/comp.sources.d'' that someone told you about.
335 From the root directory, you could:
336
337
338 cd pub
339 cd news
340 cd comp.sources.d
341
342
343 or, more concisely,
344
345
346 cd /pub/news/comp.sources.d
347
348
349 Then, commands such as ''get'', ''put'', and ''ls''
350 could be used to refer to items in that
351 directory.
352
353
354 Some shells in the ''UNIX'' environment have a feature I
355 like, which is switching to the previous directory. Like
356 those shells, you can do:
357
358
359 cd -
360
361
362 to change to the last directory you were in.
363
364
365 chmod
366
367
368 Acts like the ``/bin/chmod'' ''UNIX'' command, only for
369 remote files. However, this is not a standard command, so
370 remote FTP servers may not support it.
371
372
373 close
374
375
376 Disconnects you from the remote server. The program does
377 this for you automatically when needed, so you can simply
378 open other sites or quit the program without worrying about
379 closing the connection by hand.
380
381
382 debug
383
384
385 This command is mostly for internal testing. You could
386 type
387
388
389 debug 1
390
391
392 to turn debugging mode on. Then you could see all messages
393 between the program and the remote server, and things that
394 are only printed in debugging mode. However, this
395 information is also available in the
396 ''$HOME/.ncftp/trace'' file, which is created each time
397 you run ''ncftp''. If you need to report a bug, send a
398 ''trace'' file if you can.
399
400
401 dir
402
403
404 Prints a detailed directory listing. It tries to behave like
405 ''UNIX'''s ``/bin/ls -l'' command. If the remote server
406 seems to be a ''UNIX'' host, you can also use the same
407 flags you would with ''ls'', for instance
408
409
410 dir -rt
411
412
413 would try to act like
414
415
416 /bin/ls -lrt
417
418
419 would on ''UNIX''.
420
421
422 get
423
424
425 Copies files from the current working directory on the
426 remote host to your machine's current working directory. To
427 place a copy of ``README'' and ``README.too'' in your local
428 directory, you could try:
429
430
431 get README README.too
432
433
434 You could also accomplish that by using a wildcard
435 expression, such as:
436
437
438 get README*
439
440
441 This command is similar to the behavior of other FTP
442 programs' ''mget'' command. To retrieve a remote file but
443 give it a different name on your host, you can use the
444 ``-z'' flag. This example shows how to download a file
2 perry 445 called ''!ReadMe.txt'' but name it locally as
1 perry 446 ''README'':
447
448
2 perry 449 get -z !ReadMe.txt README
1 perry 450
451
452 The program tries to ``resume'' downloads by default. This
453 means that if the remote FTP server lost the connection and
454 was only able to send 490 kilobytes of a 500 kilobyte file,
455 you could reconnect to the FTP server and do another
456 ''get'' on the same file name and it would get the last
457 10 kilobytes, instead of retrieving the entire file again.
458 There are some occasions where you may not want that
459 behavior. To turn it off you can use the ``-f''
460 flag.
461
462
463 There are also times where you want to append to an existing
464 file. You can do this by using the ``-A'' flag, for
465 example
466
467
468 get -A log.11
469
470
471 would append to a file named ``log.11'' if it existed
472 locally.
473
474
475 Another thing you can do is delete a remote file after you
476 download it. This can be useful when a remote host expects a
477 file to be removed when it has been retrieved. Use the
478 double-D flag, such as ``get -DD'' to do this.
479
480
481 The ''get'' command lets you retrieve entire directory
482 trees, too. Although it may not work with some remote
483 systems, you can try ``get -R'' with a directory to download
484 the directory and its contents.
485
486
487 jobs
488
489
490 Views the list of currently executing ''NcFTP''
491 background tasks. This actually just runs ''ncftpbatch
492 -l'' for you.
493
494
495 lcd
496
497
498 The ''lcd'' command is the first of a few ``l'' commands
499 that work with the local host. This changes the current
500 working directory on the local host. If you want to download
501 files into a different local directory, you could use
502 ''lcd'' to change to that directory and then do your
503 downloads.
504
505
506 lchmod
507
508
509 Runs ``/bin/chmod'' on the local host.
510
511
512 lls
513
514
515 Another local command that comes in handy is the ''lls''
516 command, which runs ``/bin/ls'' on the local host and
517 displays the results in the program's window. You can use
518 the same flags with ''lls'' as you would in your command
519 shell, so you can do things like:
520
521
522 lcd ~/doc
523 lls -lrt p*.txt
524
525
526 lmkdir
527
528
529 Runs ``/bin/mkdir'' on the local host.
530
531
532 lookup
533
534
535 The program also has a built-in interface to the name
536 service via the ''lookup'' command. This means you can
537 lookup entries for remote hosts, like:
538
539
540 lookup cse.unl.edu ftp.cs.unl.edu sphygmomanometer.unl.edu
541
542
543 prints:
544
545
546 cse.unl.edu 129.93.33.1
547 typhoon.unl.edu 129.93.33.24
548 sphygmomanometer.unl.edu 129.93.33.126
549
550
551 There is also a more detailed option, enabled with ``-v,''
552 i.e.:
553
554
555 lookup -v cse.unl.edu ftp.cs.unl.edu
556
557
558 prints:
559
560
561 cse.unl.edu:
562 Name: cse.unl.edu
563 Address: 129.93.33.1
564 ftp.cs.unl.edu:
565 Name: typhoon.unl.edu
566 Alias: ftp.cs.unl.edu
567 Address: 129.93.33.24
568
569
570 You can also give ''IP'' addresses, so this would work
571 too:
572
573
574 lookup 129.93.33.24
575
576
577 prints:
578
579
580 typhoon.unl.edu 129.93.33.24
581
582
583 lpage
584
585
586 Views a local file one page at a time, with your preferred
587 $PAGER program.
588
589
590 lpwd
591
592
593 Prints the current local directory. Use this command when
594 you forget where you are on your local machine.
595
596
597 lrename
598
599
600 Runs ``/bin/mv'' on the local host.
601
602
603 lrm
604
605
606 Runs ``/bin/rm'' on the local host.
607
608
609 lrmdir
610
611
612 Runs ``/bin/rmdir'' on the local host.
613
614
615 ls
616
617
618 Prints a directory listing from the remote system. It tries
619 to behave like ''UNIX'''s ``/bin/ls -CF'' command. If the
620 remote server seems to be a ''UNIX'' host, you can also
621 use the same flags you would with ''ls'', for
622 instance
623
624
625 ls -rt
626
627
628 would try to act like
629
630
631 /bin/ls -CFrt
632
633
634 would on ''UNIX''.
635
636
637 ''ncftp'' has a powerful built-in system for dealing with
638 directory listings. It tries to cache each one, so if you
639 list the same directory, odds are it will display instantly.
640 Behind the scenes, ''ncftp'' always tries a long listing,
641 and then reformats it as it needs to. So even if your first
642 listing of a directory was a regular ``ls'' which displayed
643 the files in columns, your next listing could be ``ls -lrt''
644 and ''ncftp'' would still use the cached directory
645 listing to quickly display the information for
646 you!
647
648
649 mkdir
650
651
652 Creates a new directory on the remote host. For many public
653 archives, you won't have the proper access permissions to do
654 that.
655
656
657 open
658
659
660 Establishes an FTP control connection to a remote host. By
661 default, ''ncftp'' logs in anonymously to the remote
662 host. You may want to use a specific user account when you
663 log in, so you can use the ``-u'' flag to specify which
664 user. This example shows how to ''open'' the host
665 ``bowser.nintendo.co.jp'' using the username
666 ``mario:''
667
668
669 open -u mario bowser.nintendo.co.jp
670
671
672 Here is a list of options available for use with the
673 ''open'' command:
674
675
676 __-u__ ''XX'' Use username ''XX'' instead of
677 anonymous.
678
679
680 __-p__ ''XX'' Use password ''XX'' with the
681 username.
682
683
684 __-j__ ''XX'' Use account ''XX'' in supplement to
685 the username and password (deprecated).
686
687
688 __-P__ ''XX'' Use port number ''XX'' instead of the
689 default FTP service port (21).
690
691
692 page
693
694
695 Browses a remote file one page at a time, using your $PAGER
696 program. This is useful for reading README's on the remote
697 host without downloading them first.
698
699
700 pdir and pls
701
702
703 These commands are equivalent to ''dir'' and ''ls''
704 respectively, only they feed their output to your pager.
705 These commands are useful if the directory listing scrolls
706 off your screen.
707
708
709 put
710
711
712 Copies files from the local host to the remote machine's
713 current working directory. To place a copy of ``xx.zip'' and
714 ``yy.zip'' in the remote directory, you could
715 try:
716
717
718 put xx.zip yy.zip
719
720
721 You could also accomplish that by using a wildcard
722 expression, such as:
723
724
725 put *.zip
726
727
728 This command is similar to the behavior of other FTP
729 programs' ''mput'' command. To send a remote file but
730 give it a different name on your host, you can use the
731 ``-z'' flag. This example shows how to upload a file called
732 ``ncftpd-2.0.6.tar.gz'' but name it remotely as
733 ``NFTPD206.TGZ:''
734
735
736 put -z ncftpd-2.0.6.tar.gz NFTPD206.TGZ
737
738
739 The program ''does not'' try to ``resume'' uploads by
740 default. If you do want to resume an upload, use the ``-z''
741 flag.
742
743
744 There are also times where you want to append to an existing
745 remote file. You can do this by using the ``-A'' flag, for
746 example
747
748
749 put -A log11.txt
750
751
752 would append to a file named ``log11.txt'' if it existed on
753 the remote server.
754
755
756 Another thing you can do is delete a local file after you
757 upload it. Use the double-D flag, such as ``put -DD'' to do
758 this.
759
760
761 The ''put'' command lets you send entire directory trees,
762 too. It should work on all remote systems, so you can try
763 ``put -R'' with a directory to upload the directory and its
764 contents.
765
766
767 pwd
768
769
770 Prints the current remote working directory. A portion of
771 the pathname is also displayed in the shell's
772 prompt.
773
774
775 quit
776
777
778 Of course, when you finish using the program, type
779 ''quit'' to end the program (You could also use
780 ''bye'', ''exit'', or ''^D'').
781
782
783 quote
784
785
786 This can be used to send a direct ''FTP Protocol''
787 command to the remote server. Generally this isn't too
788 useful to the average user.
789
790
791 rename
792
793
794 If you need to change the name of a remote file, you can use
795 the ''rename'' command, like:
796
797
798 rename SPHYGMTR.TAR sphygmomanometer-2.3.1.tar
799
800
801 rhelp
802
803
804 Sends a help request to the remote server. The list of
805 ''FTP Protocol'' commands is often printed, and sometimes
806 some other information that is actually useful, like how to
807 reach the site administrator.
808
809
810 Depending on the remote server, you may be able to give a
811 parameter to the server also, like:
812
813
814 rhelp NLST
815
816
817 One server responded:
818
819
820 Syntax: NLST [[
821
822
823 rm
824
825
826 If you need to delete a remote file you can try the
827 ''rm'' command. Much of the time this won't work because
828 you won't have the proper access permissions. This command
829 doesn't accept any flags, so you can't nuke a whole tree by
830 using ``-rf'' flags like you can on
831 ''UNIX''.
832
833
834 rmdir
835
836
837 Similarly, the ''rmdir'' command removes a directory.
838 Depending on the remote server, you may be able to remove a
839 non-empty directory, so be careful.
840
841
842 set
843
844
845 This lets you configure some program variables, which are
846 saved between runs in the ''$HOME/.ncftp/prefs'' file.
847 The basic syntax is:
848
849
850 set
851
852
853 For example, to change the value you use for the anonymous
854 password, you might do:
855
856
857 set anon-password ncftp@ncftp.com
858
859
860 See the next section for a list of things you
861 change.
862
863
864 show
865
866
867 This lets you display program variables. You can do ``show
868 all'' to display all of them, or give a variable name to
869 just display that one, such as:
870
871
872 show anon-password
873
874
875 site
876
877
878 One obscure command you may have to use someday is
879 ''site''. The ''FTP Protocol'' allows for ``site
880 specific'' commands. These ``site'' commands vary of course,
881 such as:
882
883
884 site chmod 644 README
885
886
887 Actually, ''ncftp'''s ''chmod'' command really does
888 the above.
889
890
891 Try doing one of these to see what the remote server
892 supports, if any:
893
894
895 rhelp SITE
896 site help
897
898
899 type
900
901
902 You may need to change transfer types during the course of a
903 session with a server. You can use the ''type'' command
904 to do this. Try one of these:
905
906
907 type ascii
908 type binary
909 type image
910
911
912 The ''ascii'' command is equivalent to ``type a'', and
913 the ''binary'' command is equivalent to ``type i'' and
914 ``type b''.
915
916
917 umask
918
919
920 Sets the process' ''umask'' on the remote server, if it
921 has any concept of a umask, i.e.:
922
923
924 umask 077
925
926
927 However, this is not a standard command, so remote FTP
928 servers may not support it.
929
930
931 version
932
933
934 This command dumps some information about the particular
935 edition of the program you are using, and how it was
936 installed on your system.
937
938
939 __VARIABLE REFERENCE__
940
941
942 anon-password
943
944
945 Specifies what to use for the password when logging in
946 anonymously. Internet convention has been to use your E-mail
947 address as a courtesy to the site administrator. If you
948 change this, be aware that some sites require (i.e. they
949 check for) valid E-mail addresses.
950
951
952 auto-resume
953
954
955 ''NcFTP'' 3 now prompts the user by default when you try
956 to download a file that already exists locally, or upload a
957 file that already exists remotely. Older versions of the
958 program automatically guessed whether to overwrite the
959 existing file or attempt to resume where it left off, but
960 sometimes the program would guess wrong. If you would prefer
961 that the program always guess which action to take, set this
962 variable to ''yes'', otherwise, leave it set to ''no''
963 and the program will prompt you for which action to
964 take.
965
966
967 autosave-bookmark-changes
968
969
970 With the advent of version 3 of ''NcFTP'', the program
971 treats bookmarks more like they would with your web browser,
972 which means that once you bookmark the site, the remote
973 directory is static. If you set this variable to ''yes'',
974 then the program will automatically update the bookmark's
975 starting remote directory with the directory you were in
976 when you closed the site. This behavior would be more like
977 that of ''NcFTP'' version 2.
978
979
980 confirm-close
981
982
983 By default the program will ask you when a site you haven't
984 bookmarked is about to be closed. To turn this prompt off,
985 you can set this variable to ''no''.
986
987
988 connect-timeout
989
990
991 Previous versions of the program used a single timeout value
992 for everything. You can now have different values for
993 different operations. However, you probably do not need to
994 change these from the defaults unless you have special
995 requirements.
996
997
998 The ''connect-timeout'' variable controls how long to
999 wait, in seconds, for a connection establishment to complete
1000 before considering it hopeless. You can choose to not use a
1001 timeout at all by setting this to -1.
1002
1003
1004 control-timeout
1005
1006
1007 This is the timer used when ''ncftp'' sends an FTP
1008 command over the control connection to the remote server. If
1009 the server hasn't replied in that many seconds, it considers
1010 the session lost.
1011
1012
1013 logsize
1014
1015
1016 This is controls how large the transfer log
1017 ($HOME/.ncftp/log) can grow to, in kilobytes. The default is
1018 200, for 200kB; if you don't want a log, set this to
1019 0.
1020
1021
1022 pager
1023
1024
1025 This is the external program to use to view a text file, and
1026 is ''more'' by default.
1027
1028
1029 passive
1030
1031
1032 This controls ''ncftp'''s behavior for data connections,
1033 and can be set to one of ''on'', ''off'', or the
1034 default, ''optional''. When passive mode is on,
1035 ''ncftp'' uses the FTP command primitive ''PASV'' to
1036 have the client establish data connections to the server.
1037 The default FTP protocol behavior is to use the FTP command
1038 primitive ''PORT'' which has the server establish data
1039 connections to the client. The default setting for this
1040 variable, ''optional'', allows ''ncftp'' to choose
1041 whichever method it deems necessary.
1042
1043
1044 progress-meter
1045
1046
1047 You can change how the program reports file transfer status.
1048 Select from meter ''2'', ''1'', or
1049 ''0''.
1050
1051
1052 redial-delay
1053
1054
1055 When a host is busy or unavailable, the program waits this
1056 number of seconds before trying again. The smallest you can
1057 set this is to 10 seconds -- so if you were planning on
1058 being inconsiderate, think again.
1059
1060
1061 save-passwords
1062
1063
1064 If you set this variable to ''yes'', the program will
1065 save passwords along with the bookmarks you save. While this
1066 makes non-anonymous logins more convenient, this can be very
1067 dangerous since your account information is now sitting in
1068 the $HOME/.ncftp/bookmarks file. The passwords aren't in
1069 clear text, but it is still trivial to decode them if
1070 someone wants to make a modest effort.
1071
1072
1073 so-bufsize
1074
1075
1076 If your operating system supports TCP Large Windows, you can
1077 try setting this variable to the number of bytes to set the
1078 TCP/IP socket buffer to. This option won't be of much use
1079 unless the remote server also supports large window sizes
1080 and is pre-configured with them enabled.
1081
1082
1083 xfer-timeout
1084
1085
1086 This timer controls how long to wait for data blocks to
1087 complete. Don't set this too low or else your transfers will
1088 timeout without completing.
1089
1090
1091 __FIREWALL AND PROXY CONFIGURATION__
1092
1093
1094 You may find that your network administrator has placed a
1095 firewall between your machine and the Internet, and that you
1096 cannot reach external hosts.
1097
1098
1099 The answer may be as simple as setting ''ncftp'' to use
1100 ''passive'' mode only, which you can do from a
1101 ''ncftp'' command prompt like this:
1102
1103
1104 set passive on
1105
1106
1107 The reason for this is because many firewalls do not allow
1108 incoming connections to the site, but do allow users to
1109 establish outgoing connections. A passive data connection is
1110 established by the client to the server, whereas the default
1111 is for the server to establish the connection to the client,
1112 which firewalls may object to. Of course, you now may have
1113 problems with sites whose primitive FTP servers do not
1114 support passive mode.
1115
1116
1117 Otherwise, if you know you need to have ''ncftp''
1118 communicate directly with a firewall or proxy, you can try
1119 editing the separate ''$HOME/.ncftp/firewall''
1120 configuration file. This file is created automatically the
1121 first time you run the program, and contains all the
1122 information you need to get the program to work in this
1123 setup.
1124
1125
1126 The basics of this process are configuring a firewall
1127 (proxy) host to go through, a user account and password for
1128 authentication on the firewall, and which type of firewall
1129 method to use. You can also setup an exclusion list, so that
1130 ''ncftp'' does not use the firewall for hosts on the
1131 local network.
1132 !!FILES
1133
1134
1135 $HOME/.ncftp/bookmarks
1136
1137
1138 Saves bookmark and host information.
1139
1140
1141 $HOME/.ncftp/firewall
1142
1143
1144 Firewall access configuration file.
1145
1146
1147 $HOME/.ncftp/prefs
1148
1149
1150 Program preferences.
1151
1152
1153 $HOME/.ncftp/trace
1154
1155
1156 Debugging output for entire program run.
1157
1158
1159 $HOME/.ncftp/v3init
1160
1161
1162 Used to tell if this version of the program has run
1163 before.
1164
1165
1166 $HOME/.ncftp/spool/
1167
1168
1169 Directory where background jobs are stored in the form of
1170 spool configuration files.
1171
1172
1173 $HOME/.ncftp/spool/log
1174
1175
1176 Information for background data transfer
1177 processes.
1178 !!ENVIRONMENT
1179
1180
1181 PATH
1182
1183
1184 User's search path, used to find the ''ncftpbatch''
1185 program, pager, and some other system
1186 utilities.
1187
1188
1189 PAGER
1190
1191
1192 Program to use to view text files one page at a
1193 time.
1194
1195
1196 TERM
1197
1198
1199 If the program was compiled with support for ''GNU
1200 Readline'' it will need to know how to manipulate the
1201 terminal correctly for line-editing, etc. The pager program
1202 will also take advantage of this setting.
1203
1204
1205 HOME
1206
1207
1208 By default, the program writes its configuration data in a
1209 ''.ncftp'' subdirectory of the ''HOME''
1210 directory.
1211
1212
1213 NCFTPDIR
1214
1215
1216 If set, the program will use this directory instead of
1217 ''$HOME/.ncftp''. This variable is optional except for
1218 those users whose home directory is the root
1219 directory.
1220
1221
1222 COLUMNS
1223
1224
1225 Both the built-in ''ls'' command and the external
1226 ''ls'' command need this to determine how many screen
1227 columns the terminal has.
1228 !!BUGS
1229
1230
1231 There are no such sites named ''bowser.nintendo.co.jp''
1232 or ''sphygmomanometer.unl.edu''.
1233
1234
1235 Auto-resume should check the file timestamps instead of
1236 relying upon just the file sizes, but it is difficult to do
1237 this reliably within FTP.
1238
1239
1240 Directory caching and recursive downloads depend on
1241 ''UNIX''-like behavior of the remote host.
1242 !!AUTHOR
1243
1244
1245 Mike Gleason, NcFTP Software
1246 (mgleason@ncftp.com).
1247 !!SEE ALSO
1248
1249
1250 ncftpput(1), ncftpget(1),
1251 ncftpbatch(1), ftp(1), rcp(1),
1252 tftp(1).
1253
1254
1255 ''LibNcFTP''
1256 (http://www.ncftp.com/libncftp).
1257
1258
1259 ''NcFTPd'' (http://www.ncftp.com/ncftpd).
1260 !!THANKS
1261
1262
1263 Thanks to everyone who uses the program. Your support is
1264 what drives me to improve the program!
1265
1266
1267 I thank Dale Botkin and Tim Russell at my former ISP,
1268 ''Probe Technology''.
1269
1270
1271 Ideas and some code contributed by my partner, Phil
1272 Dietz.
1273
1274
1275 Thanks to Brad Mittelstedt and Chris Tjon, for driving and
1276 refining the development of the backbone of this project,
1277 ''LibNcFTP''.
1278
1279
1280 I'd like to thank my former system administrators, most
1281 notably Charles Daniel, for making testing on a variety of
1282 platforms possible, letting me have some extra disk space,
1283 and for maintaining the UNL FTP site.
1284
1285
1286 For testing versions 1 and 2 above and beyond the call of
1287 duty, I am especially grateful to: Phil Dietz, Kok Hon Yin,
1288 and Andrey A. Chernov (ache@astral.msk.su).
1289
1290
2 perry 1291 Thanks to Tim !MacKenzie (t.mackenzie@trl.oz.au) for the
1 perry 1292 original filename completion code for version 2.3.0 and
1293 2.4.2.
1294
1295
1296 Thanks to DaviD W. Sanderson (dws@ora.com), for helping me
1297 out with the man page.
1298
1299
1300 Thanks to those of you at UNL who appreciate my
1301 work.
1302
1303
1304 Thanks to Red Hat Software for honoring my licensing
1305 agreement, but more importantly, thanks for providing a
1306 solid and affordable development platform.
1307 !!APOLOGIES
1308
1309
1310 To the users, for not being able to respond personally to
1311 most of your inquiries.
1312
1313
1314 To Phil, for things not being the way they should
1315 be.
1316 ----
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