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From: dab@opus.cray.com (Dave Borman)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re:  FTP "STRU VMS" extension
Message-ID: <8901310033.AA19423@oliver.cray.com>
Date: 31 Jan 89 00:33:10 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 42

Kenneth Adelman writes:

>     MultiNet has a non-standard extension to FTP to allow
> transfer of arbitrary VMS files between consenting VMS machines
> called "STRU VMS". We have an agreement with one other VMS TCP
> vendor to implement STRU VMS in a compatible fashion.
> 
...
>     I would be interested in hearing from any other VMS FTP
> implementors, including our competitors, for the purpose of starting a
> discussion about the proposed extension to FTP. When we reach a
> consensus about how STRU VMS should work, we will publish the
> resulting specification in RFC form.
> 

Rather than extend the STRU command of ftp to add "STRU VMS", how
about doing it through the SITE command instead?  From RFC959, pg 33:

    SITE PARAMETERS (SITE)

	This command is used by the server to provide services
	specific to his sytem that are essential to file transfer
	but not sufficiently universal to be included as commands in
	the protocol.  The nature of these services and the
	specification of their syntax can be stated in a reply to
	the HELP SITE command.

It seems to me that the SITE command is the one to use when adding
non-standard extensions to FTP.  (I've just finished expanding our
ftp server to allow "SITE UMASK", "SITE CHMOD", "SITE IDLE" and
"SITE HELP".  UMASK and CHMOD do the expected UNIX stuff, IDLE can
be used to change the length of the idle timer, which gets reset
everytime something happens, and if it goes off it closes the
connection.  In 4.3BSD this defaults to 15 minutes.  HELP is used
to find out the syntax for using these site specific commands)

Note that any BSD based ftp does not support the "site" command,
but they do support the "quote" command, so you can still make
use of the site command by issuing commands like "quote SITE UMASK".

		-Dave Borman
		Cray Research, Inc.