Specifying file names in SSH File Transfer Protocol

[Richard Whalen <Whalenr%process.com@localhost>]

http://www2.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-02.txt states
that filenames use Unix syntax.

This would be fine if all the computers in the world were Unix, but they are
not.  FTP (RFC 959) recognize that file specification syntax varied by
ignoring it.

I recognize that the SSH File Transfer Protocol wants to have a defined
method of specifying a file so that it can do things like implement a
recursive copy of a directory tree.

While it is possible to use translation routines to translate between the
local system's naming structure and the Unix style, the variety of
implementations that already exist do not always use the same string for the
same user input.  This makes it harder to get the translator to work
correctly all of the time.

I would like to propose a more flexible method of specifying a file, that I
believe will not have these problems.

A file name is composed of a sequence of strings.  The first string
specifies the file system.  The last string specifies the file name.  The
intermediate strings specify each element of the directory path.  This will
allow each system to compose the appropriate syntax by concatenating the
strings with the appropriate separators.

A change will also be needed to be made to each of the commands that take a
file specification to note which style of file specification is to be used.

----------------------
Richard Whalen
Process Software