Re: lynx-dev Argh! FTP problems...

[pg]

In a recent note, Paul D. Smith said:

> Date: Wed, 13 May 98 13:14:22 EDT
> 
>  1) Lynx downloaded the file OK (it was a .tar.gz file).  It then tried
>     to uncompress the file, which I didn't want it to do.  I can't find
>     any way to modify this behavior; do I have to modify ~/.mailcap or
>     something?  Where is this documented?  I have a .mime.type set up
>     for this extension (.tar.gz), but nothing in .mailcap (well, I have
>     an x-mozilla-flags=save, but I assume Lynx isn't looking at that).
> 
I share the sentiment about wanting a raw download.  A couple more
reasons:

1) FTP supplies no MIME headers, so Lynx is just guessing about the
   Content-type.  If it guesses wrong, the attempt to uncompress
   corrupts the file.

2) Some archivists supply MD5 checksums for archived files.  Uncompressing
   obliterates this information.  In my experience, recompressing
   frequently fails to reconstruct the checksum, or even the length
   of the archive.

-- gil