Most file transfer tasks can be handled with Fetch's regular buttons and menu items. But some file transfer servers implement non-standard commands, or require use of standard commands in non-standard situations. If these cases you can send an arbitrary FTP command with the Send FTP Command menu item. It prompts you for a command and passes it along to the other computer without interpretation. The other computer's response to the command will be presented in a dialog box.
Note that FTP protocol commands often differ from the commands typed to the Unix FTP client. For example, “cd” is not a valid FTP command but “CWD” is. Likewise, “ls” and “dir” are not valid commands; the proper file listing commands are “NLST” and “LIST”. FTP commands can be entered in upper or lower case.
If you send the “USER” command Fetch will automatically prompt you to enter a password. If you send a file listing command (“NLST” or “LIST”) Fetch will put the file list into a new text window.
Examples of commands that may be useful (these are specific to Unix servers):
LIST -lt -- lists files sorted by date
NLST *.hqx -- lists files that end in “.hqx”
SITE UMASK 022 -- sets the file permissions mask to 022
SITE CHMOD 660 file -- sets file’s permission bits to 660
HELP -- lists the commands supported by this server
If you enter a multi-part command, or one that starts a file-transfer, it will almost certainly not work and you may have to close the connection.
