Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!XEROX.COM!shih.envos
From: shih.envos@XEROX.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.xerox
Subject: Re: File Directory Problem
Message-ID: <890517-144111-17872@Xerox>
Date: 17 May 89 21:44:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 35

I'm assuming you were using TCPFTP on the 1186 to copy files from your Sun
to your 1186?

If so, you're probably getting bitten by the following (at least this is
what I think is going on):

The Unix FTP program (and most Unix utilities, actually), declares fixed
string buffers to hold the argument line, internal strings, etc.

When the shell (or other program) expands * to be the a very large
directory, that string can exceed the size of the buffer.  In C programs,
that simply overwrites other storage space, quietly.  What I think is
happening is, FTP ends up returning a truncated, possibly illegal
(non-null-terminated) string of filenames.

The problem is consequently not in the number of files, but in the total
length of the names.  When you use *, the relative pathname length of
course depends on your specification.
 (e.g. foodir/* is different than being in foodir and using *).

Anyway, this problem in FTP  suffices to confuse code further upstream.

I recall tracking this down once, there is probably an AR on this
somewhere, but its a Unix problem, not Lisp's.  I recall you can
demonstrate this by using FTP to attempt to copy that directory from one
Sun to another.


The workaround would be to copy the files in two passes.

p.s.  That's one of the reasons that Medley-Sun's distribution has multiple
directories for the fonts.

-Frank Shih
-(ex)Envos Dev. Mgr., and one-time TCP hacker