[GRLUG] globbing

[Bob Kline]

Not quite stated correctly.  Globbing
chokes after a certain number of bytes,
not files.  i.e., if you're in the habbit
of using 256 byte file names - or whatever
the current length limit is for a typical
Linux system today - you'll run in to it
with fewer files.

On that basis I'll guess the limit might
be closer to 1MB, based on my own
situation.  If all this is true, I've probably
had it, not matter what the help desk
*doesn't* come back with.

   -- Bob


On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 11:41 AM, Bob Kline <bob.kline at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> 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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