You can modify the way FTP transfers files, depending on the
following criteria:
o The operating system of the remote host
o The applications you use
o Whether you want wildcard name expansion
o The information you want displayed during processing
The following are a few of the FTP commands that control FTP
command processing:
o ENABLE/DISABLE LOG
Enables or disables the display of FTP commands sent to the
remote host.
o ENABLE/DISABLE PARSE
Enables or disables the expansion of file name specifications.
o ENABLE/DISABLE REPLY
Enables or disables the display of all responses from the
remote host.
o QUOTE
Sends FTP commands directly to the remote host without local
interpretation.
The preceding commands control the way FTP displays command
processing information and status. The SHOW STATUS command
displays the current status of the FTP client (your local host)
and, if you have a connection, of the remote host.
By default, FTP returns multiple lines of error messages
(MULTILINE is enabled). The first line explains the general
problem, while subsequent lines provide details to help you
diagnose the source of the problem. These lines may include
operating system as well as FTP messages. Applications that use
FTP to transfer files under program control often do not need the
extra messages returned. To disable the MULTILINE feature, when
you supply a password to connect to a remote host, precede the
password with a hyphen (-password), as in the following example:
$ FTP /USER=SALINGER /PASSWORD=-LETMEIN HAGELS
Use the FTP command SHOW STATUS to determine whether the
MULTILINE feature is enabled.
You can modify the way FTP reacts to errors by using the SET
ERROR_LEVEL command. By default, the error level setting is
SUCCESS, which means that when FTP is running in batch mode, a
warning or error message will cause FTP to exit. (FTP runs in
batch mode when FTP commands are executed by a command procedure
rather than interactively.) If you do not want FTP to exit upon a
warning or error message, you can set the error level to ERROR.
For example, in the following command, if the default error level
(SUCCESS) is in effect and directory [MILLER.USERS] does not
exist, the resulting error would cause FTP to exit.
$ FTP CONNECT HAGELS
cd [MILLER.USERS]
DEL *.*;*
EXIT
$
If the error level had been set to ERROR, FTP would not exit,
and the DELETE command in the command procedure would delete all
files in your current working directory. Note that you can also
set the error level to WARNING, which causes FTP to tolerate
warning messages (but not error messages).