File Transfer, Overview

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4D v17

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the primary means of transferring documents and applications from one computer to another. FTP "sites" are computers throughout the world running FTP server software. This provides a means for disparate systems to exchange files. Client applications on a variety of platforms can all log into a FTP server in order to upload or download text or binary files. The FTP routines within the 4D Internet Commands give developers the tools to create FTP clients within their 4D databases.

Notes:

When specifying pathnames in the FTP commands, you should always treat file locations on the FTP site as a Unix directory, even if you know the FTP host to be a Macintosh running FTP server software. Whatever the platform, the FTP server software will internally convert your Unix pathname to the format it needs to serve its documents to connected clients.
For greater flexibility, 4D Internet Commands let you pass a POP3, IMAP or FTP connection reference directly to low-level TCP commands and vice versa. For more information, refer to the Low Level Routines, Overview section.
In 4D Internet Commands v16 R2 and higher, file names are limited to 1,024 characters, whatever the OS(*).
(*) On macOS 32-bit versions, 4D Internet Commands use deprecated file management APIs that are no longer maintained by Apple, Inc. In this environment, depending on the macOS version, file names can have more restrictive limitations regarding length and supported characters. We highly recommend to upgrade to 4D Internet Commands 64-bit as soon as possible.