David Gibson wrote:On the off-chance one of you knows the answer to this... Do you know if, when files are FTPed to/from the web site, they undergo a format conversion, e.g. from CRLF to CR line endings?
Ive noticed something odd (well, odd to me). On the BCRA web server, the size of index.html is reported as 23932 bytes but Windows reports it as 24411, a difference of 479 bytes, which is the number of lines in the file.
Is there a format conversion going on, or do the systems count differently? Both seem odd - I mean, how does the server "know" to re-convert the file when I download it. (That is, it goes from 24411 to 23932 when I upload and, if I download that file, it becomes 24411 again.
Query on FTP file formats
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David Cooke
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Query on FTP file formats
Dave Cooke
BCA IT Working Party, BCA Web Services, National Cave Registry Co-ordinator, CSCC Webmaster
BCA IT Working Party, BCA Web Services, National Cave Registry Co-ordinator, CSCC Webmaster
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David Cooke
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Re: Query on FTP file formats
They can do.
FTP can work in two modes, binary or ASCII format. In ASCII mode the end of line character is converted as appropriate to the destination computer's operating system - which is what you are seeing (LF becomes CRLF or vice versa).
In binary mode no translation occurs. The ftp client will make the decision as to which mode to be in. Check to see what is set in your options. It can be 'auto' based on file type or explicitly set to always be binary or always be ASCII.
I generally force everything to be binary so my binary files can't be accidentally corrupted and use a decent text editor that can cope with either ending for the text files.
FTP can work in two modes, binary or ASCII format. In ASCII mode the end of line character is converted as appropriate to the destination computer's operating system - which is what you are seeing (LF becomes CRLF or vice versa).
In binary mode no translation occurs. The ftp client will make the decision as to which mode to be in. Check to see what is set in your options. It can be 'auto' based on file type or explicitly set to always be binary or always be ASCII.
I generally force everything to be binary so my binary files can't be accidentally corrupted and use a decent text editor that can cope with either ending for the text files.
Dave Cooke
BCA IT Working Party, BCA Web Services, National Cave Registry Co-ordinator, CSCC Webmaster
BCA IT Working Party, BCA Web Services, National Cave Registry Co-ordinator, CSCC Webmaster
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David Gibson
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Re: Query on FTP file formats
Thanks for that, Cookie. I had assumed I was transferring everything in binary, but had also totally forgotten that the setting existed. I checked, and I was in Auto mode, and that is definitely what was causing the behavior I noticed. This explains another odd thing I had noticed...
I was puzzled (but not enough to investigate) why some files I downloaded always had unix-style endings and others had PC-style endings. My habit is is to store log data on the server in files with extension .txp which is associated on my PC with TextPad. But, of course, TXP is not in the default list of file extensions to be transferred in ascii mode [my FTP package allows me to edit that list]. Hence my puzzlement over the difference in TXT and TXP files.
I was puzzled (but not enough to investigate) why some files I downloaded always had unix-style endings and others had PC-style endings. My habit is is to store log data on the server in files with extension .txp which is associated on my PC with TextPad. But, of course, TXP is not in the default list of file extensions to be transferred in ascii mode [my FTP package allows me to edit that list]. Hence my puzzlement over the difference in TXT and TXP files.
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