Re: ftp mdtm: invalid command

[Erik Auerswald]

Hi,

On Thu, Aug 03, 2023 at 12:20:29AM +0200, Simon Josefsson wrote:
> Erik Auerswald <auerswal@unix-ag.uni-kl.de> writes:
> > On Wed, Aug 02, 2023 at 04:01:00PM -0300, Felipe G. Nievinski wrote:
> >> 
> >> I'm using the FTP utility, which supposedly supports the MDTM command (as
> >> per section 21.1 Standards of the documentation):
> >> https://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/manual/inetutils.html
> >
> > This documentation pertains to the FTP server (ftpd).
> >
> >> However, when I try mdtm, it complains: "invalid command".
> >
> > The FTP client (ftp) does not implement the MDTM command, as documented in
> > <https://www.gnu.org/software/inetutils/manual/html_node/Ftp-commands.html>.
> 
> The "modtime" ftp client command uses MDTM, so try this:
> 
> ftp> modtime myfilename.ext

Thanks, that is interesting!  The descriptions of MDTM and modtime
are similar:

 * MDTM:
     show last modification time of file

 * modtime file-name:
     Show the last modification time of the file on the remote machine.

It seems as if the FTP client often uses longer, more human friendly
command names instead of the respective server request names.  As such
it seems as if "modtime" in the client is "MDTM" in the server.  The code
for ftp/cmds.c::modtime seems to confirm that.

As such the answer to the original question is:

    "MDTM" is spelled "modtime" in the FTP client.

I have learned something today. :-)

Best regards,
Erik