Re: lynx-dev An ftp browsing bug

[Klaus Weide]

On Fri, 25 Jun 1999, Mike Castle wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 25, 1999 at 02:33:49PM -0400, Philip Webb wrote:
> > 
> > there's a misformed HREF:
> > 
> > <A
> > HREF="/foo/../7PM%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3CDIR%3E%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20pu
> > +b"
> > >7PM       <DIR>          pub</A>
> 
> 
> But it's an ftp url, meaning that it's generated internally by lynx.

Yes.
And I couldn't reproduces this with ftp.mcafee.com, either the user had
an old Lynx version or the server changed its format since then.

> Aha!  I remember the site now:  ftp://ftp.turbopower.com.   A command line
> ftp session looks like:
> 
> address@hidden:14pm]~(540) !ft
> ftp ftp.turbopower.com
> Connected to www.turbopower.com.
> 220 inetweb1 Microsoft FTP Service (Version 4.0).
> 331 Anonymous access allowed, send identity (e-mail name) as password.
> 230 Anonymous user logged in.
> Remote system type is Windows_NT.
> ftp> dir
> 200 PORT command successful.
> 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
> 05-20-99  03:38PM       <DIR>          pub
> 226 Transfer complete.
> ftp> 
> 
> 
> We probably have a couple of options here.
> 
> The HTFTP.c from the latest libwww probably has more support then the one
> currently shipped with lynx (WAG).  We could try to work up to just that
> file.

I dare guess that the FTP code in Lynx has seen more real-world testing
with unusual FTP servers than that in W3C's libwww.  That shouldn't
prevent you from checking though.

> Another option is, the mirror package:
> 
> package=mirror
>         comment=The Mirror Package
>         site=sunsite.org.uk
>         remote_dir=/packages/mirror
>         local_dir+mirror
> 
> 
> does properly handle this site.  We couple appropriate the algorithms
> already done in perl and migrate them to C  (alternatively, someone could
> embed perl into lynx and then just call out to mirror  ;->)
> 
> Btw, wget doesn't handle this directory listing style either (actually, it
> doesn't go outside the realm of unix style listings).

Squid (Debian package version 2.1.2-1) can't handle it either.

> If no one pipes up with a solution in the next few hours, I may give it a
> shot this evening.

HTFTP.c is full with ad hoc heuristics about this kind of stuff.
But if you trigger assuming a certain format based on some greeting
string form the server, that may not be true any more next week...

ftp.mcafee.com seems to have changed format, they have probably recognized
that it creates all kinds of problems... If erveryone does, we don't have
to do anything (just wait a bit).

But it seems ftp.turbopower.com understands NLST and, gives just a list
of names in response.  It may be enough to let HTFTP.c use NLST for this
kind of server.

   Klaus