Re: Proper way to comment an FTP script

[Vernon Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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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