Unix Shell - How Do I Get a Directory Listing via FTP?

Author

How Do I Get a Directory Listing via FTP?

jim evans

2006-11-29, 1:17 pm

If this is not the correct place to post this please direct me.

I want to fetch a directory listing using the Windows FTP facility.
In looking at the FTP commands I didn't find a DIR.

I know the basics of using the Windows FTP facility and know how to
go to the directory in question I just need a command the makes a
directory listing.

-- jim

Scott McMillan

2006-11-29, 1:17 pm

On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:36:16 -0600, jim evans
<jimsTAKEOUTnews2@houston.rr.com> wrote:

>If this is not the correct place to post this please direct me.
>
>I want to fetch a directory listing using the Windows FTP facility.
>In looking at the FTP commands I didn't find a DIR.
>
> I know the basics of using the Windows FTP facility and know how to
>go to the directory in question I just need a command the makes a
>directory listing.
>
>-- jim

Can vary depending on the FTP server you are connected to. DIR
probably won't fly on a *nix system, but dir (note lower case) as far
as I know is standard. Also, ls may be available to you.

Most FTP servers should respond to the "help" or "?" commands (no
quotes) to show you more options.

Scott McMillan

Todd H.

2006-11-29, 1:17 pm

jim evans <jimsTAKEOUTnews2@houston.rr.com> writes:

> If this is not the correct place to post this please direct me.
>
> I want to fetch a directory listing using the Windows FTP facility.
> In looking at the FTP commands I didn't find a DIR.
>
> I know the basics of using the Windows FTP facility and know how to
> go to the directory in question I just need a command the makes a
> directory listing.

ls (lowercase LS) is the command you want. It's the "dir" of *nix.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

jim evans

2006-11-29, 7:22 pm

On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:56:58 GMT, Scott McMillan
<smcmillan@twmi.rr.com> wrote:

>On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:36:16 -0600, jim evans
><jimsTAKEOUTnews2@houston.rr.com> wrote:
>
>
>Can vary depending on the FTP server you are connected to. DIR
>probably won't fly on a *nix system, but dir (note lower case) as far
>as I know is standard. Also, ls may be available to you.

dir worked. I don't know why I didn't just try that.

Thanks.

-- jim

Alan Curry

2006-11-30, 7:23 pm

In article <ruhrm2lkc32masirdvpk1488rokhl761m3@4ax.com>,
Scott McMillan <smcmillan@twmi.rr.com> wrote:
>On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:36:16 -0600, jim evans
><jimsTAKEOUTnews2@houston.rr.com> wrote:
>
>
>Can vary depending on the FTP server you are connected to. DIR
>probably won't fly on a *nix system, but dir (note lower case) as far
>as I know is standard. Also, ls may be available to you.

This is very misleading. The server has nothing to do with it. The commands
"ls" and/or "dir" are recognized by the client. Neither one of them is ever
seen by the server. The corresponding FTP protocol commands, which are
actually sent to the server to request listings, are NLST and LIST. The
classic ftp client translates ls to NLST and dir to LIST.

Newer versions of the client translate ls to LIST and require you to type
"nlist" if you want to see the listing in NLST format. The NetBSD CVS log
(http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi.../cmds.c#rev1.86) has this
to say about it:

Change `ls' to use the `LIST' and not `NLST' FTP protocol command.
Now that after many years on not caring we find certain popular
ftp servers are starting to obey RFC959 to the letter of the law
and will only return a list of filenames (not directories or
other filetypes) in the output of `NLST', then `LIST' is more useful
in this case. (Note that the aforementioned pedanticness means that
filename completion isn't as useful as it could be...)

This 6-year-old change has probably not been applied to FTP.EXE, which is a
copy of some old BSD ftp. It's easier to imagine Micros~1 deprecating and
removing it than making an effort to maintain or modernize it.

So there are variations between servers in how they respond to NLST and LIST
commands, and variations among clients in how they interpret "ls", but the
server has no influence over the client's decision to recognize that "ls" is
a valid command. If your client has an "ls" command, it will have an "ls"
command regardless of what server you're connected to.

It's possible that some weird server doesn't support NLST; in that case you'd
get an error response from the server when you type "ls" in a traditional ftp
client while "dir" would work (assuming the weird server supports LIST). I've
never seen a server that weird, though.

>Most FTP servers should respond to the "help" or "?" commands (no
>quotes) to show you more options.

Although there is a HELP command in the FTP protocol, that's not what you get
if you type "help" at the "ftp>" prompt. You get the client's own built-in
help (try it while not connected to a server if need convincing). The
server's HELP response could be seen by typing "quote help", and it will
almost certainly include both NLST and LIST among the supported commands.
"dir" and "ls" will be nowhere in sight.

--
The attacker\x92s overall goal would very probably be to convince other users
to run an unsafe program, by using the digital signature to convince them
that it is actually bona fide Microsoft software and therefore safe to run.
-- security bulletin MS01-017 ushers in a new definition of "safe"

Allodoxaphobia

2006-11-30, 7:23 pm