131140 - File not accessible

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Core Graveyard :: Networking: FTP, defect)

Description

[Joseph Maftoul]

I wanted to acces to the site ftp://trf.education.gouv.fr/pub/edutel/bo/2002/.
The answer of the browser: no such file or directory. The same site is
accessible with IE...

JM

Comment 1

[Adrian Ulrich]

same with Build 2002031321 on Gnu/Linux

The problem is, that the FTP server rederict mozilla to the directory /pub after
login!

The URL
ftp://trf.education.gouv.fr/edutel/bo/2002/
does work with mozilla!
But this URL is incorrect..

The URL
ftp://trf.education.gouv.fr/../pub/edutel/bo/2002/
works..

Comment 2

[Adrian Ulrich]

huch! the 2nd url doesn't seem to work as a link in a html page..

but it works when entered into the url bar by hand..

Comment 3

[timeless]

nc4 has no problem loading the url

Comment 4

[Bradley Baetz (:bbaetz)]

-> andreas

Comment 5

[Andreas Otte]

Ha .. bbaetz was waiting for this ;-)

This is not a problem with mozilla. Why?

See section "3.2.2. FTP url-path" of RFC 1738:

   Within a name or CWD component, the characters "/" and ";" are
   reserved and must be encoded. The components are decoded prior to
   their use in the FTP protocol.  In particular, if the appropriate FTP
   sequence to access a particular file requires supplying a string
   containing a "/" as an argument to a CWD or RETR command, it is
   necessary to encode each "/".

   For example, the URL <URL:ftp://[e-mail]/%2Fetc/motd> is
   interpreted by FTP-ing to "host.dom", logging in as "myname"
   (prompting for a password if it is asked for), and then executing
   "CWD /etc" and then "RETR motd". This has a different meaning from
   <URL:ftp://[e-mail]/etc/motd> which would "CWD etc" and then
   "RETR motd"; the initial "CWD" might be executed relative to the
   default directory for "myname". On the other hand,
   <URL:ftp://[e-mail]//etc/motd>, would "CWD " with a null
   argument, then "CWD etc", and then "RETR motd".

So if you ftp to ftp://trf.education.gouv.fr/pub/edutel/bo/2002/ with such an
url as anonymous user it all depends on where the ftp server "logs" you in. If
the ftp path only starts with one / the path is relative to this starting point.
Yes, nc4 and IE do it differently, but they ignore the rfc, we do not!

There are two ways to fix this problem, one with the server and one with the
url. On the server side / could be used as login point for ftp. Or you could use
the follwing urls ftp://trf.education.gouv.fr/%2Fpub/edutel/bo/2002/ which
conforms to RFC 1738 or ftp://trf.education.gouv.fr//pub/edutel/bo/2002/ which
also works the same way (that's where we deviate form RFC 1738) to access the
directory.

ftp://trf.education.gouv.fr/edutel/bo/2002/ is not incorrect, it just fits the
server setting.

Why does the ftp://trf.education.gouv.fr/../pub/edutel/bo/2002/ in the url bar ,
but not as a link? Because we currently handle it differently. See bug 119071,
bug 120396 and bug 122133 for a history of the problem.

So, in my opinion there are two options here: Make it an EVANGELISM bug for the
ftp server (fix the server) or mark it INVALID. 

Joseph?

Comment 6

[Andreas Otte]

I'm going to mark this bug invalid soon ... unless somebody speaks up now ...

Comment 7

[Andreas Otte]

marking invalid, nobody spoke up.

Comment 8

[benc]

VERIFIED:
I concur