Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!stan!imp
From: imp@Solbourne.COM (Warner Losh)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Problem with WIN/TCP's secure FTP
Message-ID: <1991Feb12.172631.27860@Solbourne.COM>
Date: 12 Feb 91 17:26:31 GMT
References: <9102120858.AA14961@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: Solbourne Computer, Inc., Longmont, CO
Lines: 34

In article <9102120858.AA14961@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Doug Nelson
<NELSON%MSU.EDU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> writes:
>This implies that "LIST <SP>
><SP> <CRLF>" is a request to list a file or directory with a single
>blank as its name.

No, I must disagree with your reading of the RFC.  On page 46 of RFC
959 states:
	"The command codes and the argument fields are separated by
one or more spaces"

LIST<SP><SP><CR><LF> is a list command that has a NULL pathname
argument (since it starts after the last <SP> and ends before the
<CR>).

It is clear from reading RFC 1123 that the ftp daemon should be able
to accept any string that doesn't have a <CR> or a <LF> in it.
However, in light of the text I sighted above, it would appear that
the path name can't start with a space.  This would seem to indicate a
small hole in the FTP spec.

I just noticed that the SunOS 4.0.3 ftpd insists on having just one
space between the command and the arguments.  Checking the source
makes this reason rather obvious.  The reason that "LIST<SP><SP>"
works on the sun (and I guess other BSD machines) is that this turns
into a popen ("ls -lg  ") which will list the current directory.

However, like I said before, I'd file a bug with Wollongong since
it is an interoperability issue.

Warner
-- 
Warner Losh		imp@Solbourne.COM
We sing about Beauty and we sing about Truth at $10,000 a show.