[sles-beta] FTP

[Joe Doupnik]

On 07/03/2014 19:13, David Boyes wrote:
>> As discussed, we have a goal of "One Tool for One Use Case", and in terms of
>> FTP the decision has been made, to go with:
>> [snip]
>> lftp was chosen, as it supports multiple protocols (http, webdav, ... on topf o
>> ftp), backgrounding of running downloads, ... and has a reasonable CLI.
> Except that CLI is different enough to break most of the existing FTP automation scripts that people have already written and depend on for real production work.
> Sorry, that's not an improvement, that's a cost, and a pointless, needless variation vs any other Linux distribution. That CLI change requires special case code to cope with. And extra documentation. And extra testing. And every time we have to document "do it this way on every Linux EXCEPT SLES12" you look at best idiosyncratic, and at worst, incompatible.
>
> Something that would be very helpful from the SUSE folks if you're going to insist on the "one ring to rule them all" approach:  a comprehensive list of what functions/use cases you have evaluated that you think we need, and what packages you have chosen to supply to meet those needs.  Discovering these "choices" one by one is becoming really, really frustrating, and you may be able to avoid a lot of complaints by discussing this curation process up front and getting what we ACTUALLY want vs what you think we want.
>
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     Agreed, for the reasons you state.
     As I look at lftp I see a communications engine in the making, 
which in itself can be a good thing. Like many engines (Lucene, the 
Linux kernel, etc) there needs to be a user interface of merit on top. 
YaST is a good example of domesticating even a user (cmd line) 
interface. At this time lftp does not have much; it is still in the 
formative stages. Until it grows up what would be good for us in the 
field is to have lukemftp as the FTP client, and then over time with 
suitable domestication the lftp assembly might grow to replace it. At 
present it isn't ready for that status.
     Joe D.