RE: sftp rename not good.

["Howard Chu" <hyc%highlandsun.com@localhost>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ietf-ssh-owner%netbsd.org@localhost [mailto:ietf-ssh-owner%netbsd.org@localhost]On Behalf
Of Pontus Skoeld

> "Dan O'Reilly" <dano%process.com@localhost> writes:
>
> > >So if we followed you suggestion and had sftp's rename
> method simply use
> > >the OS-supplied function, we would have clients that
> behave differently
> > >depending on the server.
> >
> > Why in the world would the CLIENT behave differently?  The
> client says
> > "rename this file".  The server does so, according to the
> rules of the
> > system that the server is running on.  Case closed.  The
> client doesn't
> > have to know *ANYTHING* about what the server is doing.  Perhaps the
> > USER might, but not the client itself.
>
> The client may try to hide the sftp protocol and act like the user
> expects her normal system to act, which is probably what matters to
> her. She shouldn't need to know if someone decides to move her files
> from a UN*X box to a VMS server.

This statement implies a situation where the client is not expected to know
anything about the remote server. In practice, this situation is
non-sensical. You cannot connect to the server in the first place unless
you're either a regular user of that system, or you have made a special
pre-arrangement to obtain an account on that system. You certainly won't have
write privileges to rename arbitrary files on a server that is completely
unknown to you. Theoretical discussions about what might cause problems may
be an interesting intellectual diversion, but they are just that -
*diversions*. Real users will have knowledge about the remote server that
they're operating on.

To assume the client has no knowledge of the server is pointless.

> That said, I do of course encourage everyone to make sure that we end
> up with good, useful semantics.

  -- Howard Chu
  Chief Architect, Symas Corp.       Director, Highland Sun
  http://www.symas.com               http://highlandsun.com/hyc
  Symas: Premier OpenSource Development and Support