Re: New draft-draft of sftp...

["Joseph Galbraith" <galb-list%vandyke.com@localhost>]

> [snip]
>
> suppose I'm an SCP user and I type a command such as
>
>  scp myserver:[abc]*.* .
>
> to retrieve some files matching a wildcard
>
> [snip]
>
> There are certainly undeniable reasons why client-side globbing
> causes problems. Unfortunately, I consider this to be an undeniable
> reason why server-side globbing can _also_ cause problems. Where
> does that leave us? On the one hand, we have potentially inaccurate
> results; on the other, we have a potential security hazard (although
> as far as I know I'm the only SCP implementor who considers it
> remotely important). Is there any middle way possible?

Well, I liked my solution :-)

Seriously, though, as your example pointed out,
a VMS user and a unix user are expecting very
different things in terms of how filenames
are globbed.

And as a user, I would be very surprised if globbing
changed dramatically depending on what server
I'm connecting to -- I personally think that what
most users expect is that the globbing rules that
they are used to (the ones of the client OS) will
generaly be applied.

Between this and the potential security issues being
discussed about server side globbing, and the fact
that sftp is written as a file sharing protocol
(like NFS) as opposed to a file transfer protocol
and I definitely believe that globbing belongs in
the client, not the server.

So really, to me, the question is what information
does the client need to get this right.  I haven't had
the opportunity to review the FTP thread about
this topic yet, but that is probably the next step.

- Joseph