Re: A future for the SSH File Transfer Protocol?

[Markus Friedl <markus%openbsd.org@localhost>]

On Fri, Nov 09, 2001 at 03:47:15PM -0800, Darren Moffat wrote:
> What problem are we really trying to solve for the end user ?

a very simple protocol for copying files.

as simple as RCP, but without the many drawbacks.

> In particular is the goal a file transfer protocol along the lines of
> FTP (as the name would suggest) or is it a file sharing protocol more
> in line with NFS or CIFS.  Some of the suggestions make me thing it is
> drifting somewhere between the two at the moment (which isn't a bad
> thing as long as we know what problem we are trying to solve).

no, SFTP is not for sharing files. sftp should not become
as bloated.

> Why doesn't running the FTP protocol over SSH transport help,
> (I know about the issues with FTP as a protocol but I think it wouldn't
> hurt for the wg to document them the a requirements spec).

because ftp is big, bloated and requires a 2nd connection
for transfering files. doing FTP over TCP-forwarding is
not the same as SFTP, checking the channel data stream
for "PORT" and opening another TCP-forwarding channel adds
unnecessary complexity to an SSH implementation. why
not just use the 8bit clean channel SSH provides?

just ask the SSH vendors about how much SFTP simplified
the 'data transfer over SSH' problem? SFTP is simple and
can be very easily implented and deployed.

i don't understand the problem with SFTP.

-m