[GRLUG] globbing

[Bob Kline]

On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 8:33 AM, John-Thomas Richards <jtr at jrichards.org>wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 03, 2012 at 12:30:17AM -0400, Bob Kline wrote:
> > I discovered that only one directory is having the globbing problem,
> > and it is the one with the largest number of files.  All other
> > directories work fine, so it does appear that at some point I've
> > exceeded the number of files that ftp globbing can handle.
> >
> > Why there are limits I don't know, but it's why things like xargs
> > exist.  But not in the ftp package.
> >
> > I do have a ticket at the web hosting site, and as soon as they decide
> > I've supplied enough information, maybe they'll come back with some
> > kind of solution.  A remote shell would be nice..
>
> Is the host running Linux?
>

Here's the feedback I've gotten so far:

**

Thank you for your update on this matter. Yes, it could be the large
number of files since you are able to access other directories. Have
you tried using another FTP Client?

**

I don't know the answer to your
question, and have asked.

That it could be the large number of
files is something I mentioned to them,
so this is not going well....

Globbing will fail when the "list" gets
too long - I've seen it before.  I think
it when the lists get to be 100K bytes
long, maybe more.  A shell script might
choke at that point, and then you have
to switch to things like xargs.

But this doesn't really explain why this
is happening even at the level of one
file name now.  At least it doesn't
explain it to me.

It will be a while yet.  Your question is
a good one - they ask me whether I've
tried another version of FTP, but haven't
told me what they use or support.

I use the standard ftp that comes with
Kubuntu 12.04.

Another possibility would be a script
of some kind where I do the globbing
at my end, and then do an ftp session
on a file by file basis.  Maybe use
something like "expect."  Anyone here
know of any possibilities here?

   -- Bob
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