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FTP is 50 years old

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Re: FTP is 50 years old

#161

Post by pixl97 »

tuwtuwtuwtuw wrote: post #101
recursive wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Active mode is pretty weird. Coordinating a single client across two ports sounds difficult to me, but I've never implemented it. If that's not a difficult protocol, then what is?

Http3, IMAP, Caldav and MAPI? Cordinating a client across two ports sounds trivial compared to for example properly implementing client and server versions of IMAP search commands when no client or server follows the specification.

Until you realize that the two ports commonly involve dealing with middleware that cant handle it properly.

Re: FTP is 50 years old

#163

Post by geenew »

Just adding to the praise. I still use FTP regularly and greatly appreciate it.

It's one of those things that stands up to its name: it's a file transfer protocol, and is still, practically, the best.

Re: FTP is 50 years old

#164

Post by aspaceman »

kypro wrote: post #73

Not that I think we should go back, but I do miss the wildwest days of web development when it was still acceptable to FTP untested code straight to production. For my first dev job we would develop on production using an FTP client to push up changes on save. One day I was writing an SQL UPDATE statement and I forgot to include a WHERE clause. I basically nuked the entire product DB and it took days to recover becau…

Im a youngin’ and I regularly use it to transfer Roms to hacked portable systems (psp, vita, 3ds, wii). It’s convenient to transfer larger roms this way.

Re: FTP is 50 years old

#165

Post by klodolph »

tpmx wrote: post #45
dominiek wrote: post #39

Amazing. I never thought I would say this, but I actually implemented an FTP server in 2020. This was needed to support firmware updates to specific hardware (Electric Vehicle charging stations). Apparently embedded software developers choose FTP whenever a spec doesn't specify how binary file transfers should work. It was kind of amusing getting FTP to work in a modern cloud environment. I run a single Kubernetes po…

Implementing an FTP server from scratch that had to be compatible with lots of clients in 2020 was an interesting choice. Just to have it in javascript? Perhaps security-motivated? There are probably battle tested implementations in e.g. Python, Java or other safe-ish languages to build on? I learned this lesson in the mid 90s when fixing client compatibility bugs in an FTP server module we had built in an interprete…

> There are probably battle tested implementations in e.g. Python, Java or other safe-ish languages to build on?

My experience... there aren't a ton of choices in this space. There are a few FTP servers designed to power B2B backend services. Many of the options are designed only to provide access to the local filesystem.

Re: FTP is 50 years old

#166

Post by SulphurCrested »

FTP is still used by some photographers at major sporting events. The cameras they use actually have RJ jacks in the side, and they run Ethernet cables back to a router, or maybe a second operator with a computer. The cameras have built-in FTP clients, and can upload image files as they are taken. It's apparently important for stills images to appear in near-real-time on sports web sites.

Re: FTP is 50 years old

#167

Post by gpvos »

dheera wrote: post #127
dominiek wrote: post #39

Amazing. I never thought I would say this, but I actually implemented an FTP server in 2020. This was needed to support firmware updates to specific hardware (Electric Vehicle charging stations). Apparently embedded software developers choose FTP whenever a spec doesn't specify how binary file transfers should work. It was kind of amusing getting FTP to work in a modern cloud environment. I run a single Kubernetes po…

The good old days ... Username: anonymous Anonymous login accepted, enter e-mail address as password. Password: aoeu@aoeu.com I bet aoeu.com and asdf.com got a good amount of unwanted mail back then.

This is why example.com exists.

Re: FTP is 50 years old

#168

Post by axiolite »

klodolph wrote: post #165
tpmx wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Implementing an FTP server from scratch that had to be compatible with lots of clients in 2020 was an interesting choice. Just to have it in javascript? Perhaps security-motivated? There are probably battle tested implementations in e.g. Python, Java or other safe-ish languages to build on? I learned this lesson in the mid 90s when fixing client compatibility bugs in an FTP server module we had built in an interprete…

> There are probably battle tested implementations in e.g. Python, Java or other safe-ish languages to build on? My experience... there aren't a ton of choices in this space. There are a few FTP servers designed to power B2B backend services. Many of the options are designed only to provide access to the local filesystem.

> My experience... there aren't a ton of choices in this space. There are a few FTP servers designed to power B2B backend services. Many of the options are designed only to provide access to the local filesystem.

The "local filesystem" doesn't have to be a local file system. It's just a good, common abstraction useful for interoperability. Why not "rclone mount" your Google Drive, or use some other FUSE based file system to get easy interoperability between legacy FTP servers and modern storage options?

Re: FTP is 50 years old

#169

Post by Talanes »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #148
rsync wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What's the oldest protocol that's still regularly used?" People are answering with old telephone codes and British naval signals, etc. You should be thinking: - The muslim call to prayers. - The affirmation of faith, as it is spoken in mass or (protestant) church ... or the first and second readings, followed by a Gospel reading. - The Jewish rite of circumcision (which is, among other things, almost certainly a sig…

I would hate to be involved with any generic means of communication that required circumcisions to impart information. That sounds like a rather gory way to tell my wife I'll be late for dinner.

But it was a great way to tell your wife not to make pork for dinner. At least until it caught on beyond the intended market.
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