README

Extended File Transfer Package "xFtp"

Prerequisites

To run this package Object REXX is required to be installed on your system and the REXX Function Package RxFtp providing a REXX interface to Ftp functions most of them wellknown from the Ftp command interface. The RxFtp function package comes with the Object REXX installation except for OS/2 where it is provided by TCP/IP.

The remote system you want to exchange data with requires an Ftp-server demon running. You also need to have access to a data domain through a password protected userid on that system. For demonstration purposes, the remote system alternatively may be located on your local machine.

Ftp-servers are natively available on the system platforms OS/2 Warp Connect, AIX, and Linux. The Windows95 and WindowsNT platforms are not originally endowed with Ftp services by Microsoft but can be upgraded by Ftp services available on the market or as freeware from e.g. http://www.winfiles.com/.

Package contents

This package contains

an Ftp framework providing basic Ftp services (Ftp Class),
based on the Ftp framework, an extended Ftp support providing services to handle bulk data transfer including the generation, deletion, and transfer of whole directory trees (xFtp Class).
a number of sample scripts showing the usage of the services provided by the above support.

This package is portable without change to all system environments where Object REXX is available (see note at the end of this Readme). At this time these are:

Object REXX for Windows95 and WindowsNT:
- Interpreter Edition V1.0.3.0
- Development Edition V1.0.3.0
Object REXX for OS/2 Warp 3 and Warp 4

make sure you have the latest upgrades available from URL http://www.software.ibm.com/ad/obj-rexx

Object REXX for Linux V1.2
Object REXX for AIX V1.1.0

Download the package file xFtp.zip and unpack it in a directory of your choice. The zip-file unpacks into a directory xftp containing two directories ftproot and home and the following files:

readme.htm - this readme file
ftp.frm - Base Ftp framework class
xftp.cls - Extended Ftp support class

The directory home is considered to be the local directory and ftproot the remote root directory tree for the Ftp transfer operations. To run the programming sample code you need to copy the ftproot directory tree to the remote system and define this directory as root directory to the ftp-server demon being accessible for you through your userid and an associated password.
Please, note that the directory tree content of the directory trees provided is pretty arbitrary and can be changed as appropriate to the function performed.

Furthermore, the following files are programming samples utilizing the functionality of the base and extended Ftp support classes:

GenLtree.cmd - Generate a local directory tree
GenRtree.cmd - Generate a remote directory tree
DelLtree.cmd - Delete a local directory tree
GetLlist.cmd - get a list of files in a local directory
GetRlist.cmd - get a list of files in a remote directory
Mdel.cmd - Delete multiple files in a remote directory
Mget.cmd - Get multiple files from a remote directory
Mput.cmd - Put multiple files to a remote directory
Tdel.cmd - Delete a remote directory tree
Tget.cmd - Get a remote directory tree
Tput.cmd - Put a local directory tree

The sample programs may be explored by modifying the connect statements according to your installation needs. Use the remote system name (or the IP-address), your userid and your password for connection to the remote host. Before executing the sample programs make sure the directory containing them is in your PATH.

Note: The sample programs contain a shell script prefix '#!/usr/local/orexx/bin/rexx' being used in the Linux system environment. If you are executing on an AIX system platform this shell script prefix has to be changed to '#!/usr/lpp/orexx/bin/rexx'.
Make sure that the sample program command files are executable when being invoked directly from the shell.
The shell script prefix is simply ignored when executing on Windows system platforms provided you have Object REXX for Windows V1.0.3.0 installed. If you are running an older version you simply need to remove the first line of the script.
On OS/2 Warp3 and Warp4, the first line of the sample programs has to be removed since the command interpreter requires a conventional comment starting in column 1 of the first line to invoke the REXX interpreter.

Execute the sample programs with care, in particular with the delete commands, since large amounts of data may be effected locally as well as remotely.

Have fun with Object REXX and the extended Ftp services!