On Tuesday 07 June 2011 07:32:16 pm you wrote:
> On Jun 7, 2011, at 09:59, augustin wrote:
> >> set ftp:use-feat/example.com off
> >> set ftp:ssl-force/example.com on
> >
> > This feature is soooo cool and soooo undocumented anywhere I looked (man
> > page as well as online lftp tutorials).
>
> It's there in the man page, though perhaps not easy to understand what it's
> talking about on first read:
>
> ”You can set one variable several times for different closures, and thus
> you can get a particular settings for particular state. The closure is to
> be specified after variable name separated with slash `/'.
>
> The closure for `dns:', `net:', `ftp:', `http:', `hftp:' domain variables
> is currently just the host name as you specify it in the `open' command
> (with some exceptions where closure is meaningless, e.g. dns:cache-size).
> For some `cmd:' domain variables the closure is current URL without path.
> For other variables it is not currently used. See examples in the sample
> lftp.conf.“
>
> > Also the exact syntax to use on configuration files is not clearly
> > mentioned anywhere. Luckily, I found some forum posts where people had
> > posted their config files, which was helpful.
>
> As it said above, that sample system-wide lftp.conf file which is normally
> installed as {prefix}/etc/lftp.conf is a good place to start.
>
1) Ooops! Thank you very much for correcting me. I have made the necessary
edits to the wiki accordingly.
2) Since I was at it, I added a footnote with a reference to your email, which
I largely quote. I know you told me privately that no credit was needed, but I
still prefer crediting you :)
3) The quote from the man page is both obtuse, and also well hidden. Over the
last couple of weeks, I went many times over the whole man page, scanning for
relevant information to my problem. I think I saw the paragraph early on, but
I certainly didn't understand it and didn't realize how it was relevant to my
problem.
The thing is line 1215 (!!) or so of the man page! There is no heading or
anything, thus it is easily missed. It should be way up, at the top of the man
page, with a bold heading, to make it more visible.
I saw the reference to /etc/lftp.conf in the FILES section near the bottom,
although I almost had a look once, it never occurred to me that it was not an
empty file. I stand corrected. Thanks.
4) I hope nobody gets me wrong. In order to prevent misunderstanding, allow me
to make the following clear:
Nothing I have written on this mailing list was meant as a criticism of the
lftp developer nor of those who wrote the man page. On the contrary. I am very
grateful for their efforts. I am grateful for a nice software, to those who
developed it and to those who provided patches both to the software and the
man page. They did a great job.
And this being the world of Free (Libre) software, I contribute by putting a
tiny cherry on top, in the form of the wiki tutorial.
5) Generally speaking I find man pages hard to understand, at least at first.
They often read as a technical specification document. Tutorials (and wikis)
are completely different beasts. The two complement each other. When I don't
know at all how to use a software, I find tutorial-like documents (wikis) much
easier to understand. But once I understand the basics of the software, a
technical specification-like documents (like man pages) are helpful because of
their comprehensiveness.
6) Ultimately, it's the symbiosis between the different approaches and the
varying contributions that make the Libre Software world great. It ties right
back into the "The best combination" theme that was the main object of my blog
entry I referenced earlier.
Blessings,
Augustin.
--
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http://www.wechange.org/ http://searching911.info/
.
