RE: FTP server side logging?

[Scott Klement <klemscot@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> My understanding was the AS/400 interprets the client request at the server.
> So somewhere in the AS/400, the client's "as typed request" is processed.

That's not true.  The "get" and "put" commands are part of the "human
interface" of the FTP client.  In fact, there are many FTP clients that
don't use "put" or "get" Internet Explorer is one example...  WS-FTP is
another.

When you type "get yourfile myfile"  the FTP client interprets what you've
typed.  It determines that you want to retrieve a file called YOURFILE
from the server, and save it as MYFILE locally.

It then sends the commands PORT (or PASV) to the FTP server, followed by
the RETR command in order to get the actual data.  The server never sees
the original "get" command.

It has just occurred to me that if you don't believe Vern or Rob you
probably won't believe me either.  So, I'll back up what I say.  The
Windows FTP client has a "debugging mode" where it will print the commands
that it sends to the server.  Just type "debug" in the client, and it'll
enable it.  Here's a sample session:

C:\>ftp as400.example.com
Connected to as400.example.com.
220-QTCP at as400.example.com.
220 Connection will close if idle more than 5 minutes.
User (as400.example.com:(none)): klemscot
331 Enter password.
Password:
230 KLEMSCOT logged on.
ftp> debug
Debugging On .
ftp> cd /home/klemscot
---> CWD /home/klemscot
250-NAMEFMT set to 1.
250 "/home/klemscot" is current directory.
ftp> bin
---> TYPE I
200 Representation type is binary IMAGE.
ftp> get myfile.txt
---> PORT 192,168,5,71,4,18
200 PORT subcommand request successful.
---> RETR myfile.txt
150 Retrieving file /home/klemscot/myfile.txt
250 File transfer completed successfully.
ftp: 15 bytes received in 0.03Seconds 0.48Kbytes/sec.
ftp> quit
---> QUIT
221 QUIT subcommand received.

Note in the session above, when I typed "cd /home/klemscot" it actually
sent "CWD /home/klemscot" to the server.  When I typed "bin" it actually
sent "type I" to the server.  When I typed "get myfile.txt" it sent "PORT
192,168,5,71,4,18" followed by "RETR myfile.txt" to the server.


> The reason I say that is the Windows client doesn't know that
> "/qsys.lib/loyd.lib/me.file" is valid syntax.

True, whatever you type as the "remote filename" on your "put" command
gets sent verbatim to the FTP server as an argument to the STOR command.
But, only the "remote filename" portion is the user's input, not the rest
of the command line.

> It may not be stored on the AS/400, but it translates a "put" into the
> operation ID 7 and the "what to put" into the operational information.

Actually, it translates "STOR" into ID 7, and puts the arguments to store
(whatever they may be) into the operational information.  There is no
"put".  (There is no spoon.  The Matrix has you.)

> I will likely follow Rob's logging examples until hopefully IBM offers a
> mechanism to retrieve the verbatim input.

You could run a network sniffer to see the exact data that the iSeries is
receiving from your client, if you like.

You could also write a simple proxy program that will see the exact data
getting sent to your FTP server's command-channel, and you could create a
log from that -- but that's MUCH more complex than simply writing an exit
program -- and the logging probably won't be all that much better...
you'll maybe get a bit more detail, but that's it.