R help - Sep 2012 - RCURL ftp upload - ASCII or Binary type?

I'm trying to upload a file using RCURL:s ftpUpload() to a ftp-server using
the following command:
>
ftpUpload("'VERY.ODD.FILE.NAME(+1)'",to="ftp://x.x.x.x/","'
VERY.ODD.FILE.NAME(+1)'",userpwd="USER:PASSWORD")
OK 
 0

The file I'm trying to upload is a very simple text-file but with a bit
weird filename. Note the ' on each side of the filename.

So the upload itself is successful but the receiver of the file tells me that
the file I uploaded was of "Binary" type and that his system only
accepts "ASCII". So the receiver can see the file but it contains only
weird characters.

Surfing the web I found this:
http://www.webweaver.nu/html-tips/ascii-binary.shtml

and indeed, when I try filezilla (http://filezilla-project.org/) to do the same
upload, there is a setting in filezilla: "Default transfer type" that
can be set to "ASCII" or "Binary". The transfer works fine
when using "ASCII" and has same error as in R when using
"Binary".

My conclusion is that, for some reason, R uses "Binary" as
"Transfer type" here, but it should be using "ASCII".

I have been looking at curlSetOpt() but .encoding is not the problem here.


Is there a way to change R:s "Transfer Type" from "Binary"
to "ASCII" in this case? How?


System: windows 7
R version: 2.15.0

Thanks for your help

Best regards
Magnus Eriksson

Hi,

On Sep 26, 2012, at 8:07 AM, Magnus Eriksson wrote:
> I'm trying to upload a file using RCURL:s ftpUpload() to a ftp-server
using the following command:
> 
>>
ftpUpload("'VERY.ODD.FILE.NAME(+1)'",to="ftp://x.x.x.x/","'
VERY.ODD.FILE.NAME(+1)'",userpwd="USER:PASSWORD")
> OK 
> 0
> 
> The file I'm trying to upload is a very simple text-file but with a bit
weird filename. Note the ' on each side of the filename.
> 
> So the upload itself is successful but the receiver of the file tells me
that the file I uploaded was of "Binary" type and that his system only
accepts "ASCII". So the receiver can see the file but it contains only
weird characters.
> 
> Surfing the web I found this:
> http://www.webweaver.nu/html-tips/ascii-binary.shtml
> 
> and indeed, when I try filezilla (http://filezilla-project.org/) to do the
same upload, there is a setting in filezilla: "Default transfer type"
that can be set to "ASCII" or "Binary". The transfer works
fine when using "ASCII" and has same error as in R when using
"Binary".
> 
> My conclusion is that, for some reason, R uses "Binary" as
"Transfer type" here, but it should be using "ASCII".
> 
> I have been looking at curlSetOpt() but .encoding is not the problem here.
> 
> 
> Is there a way to change R:s "Transfer Type" from
"Binary" to "ASCII" in this case? How?
> 
What happens if you explicitly set the asText argument to ftpUpload() to TRUE? 
asText is defined by default based upon the 'what' argument.
> what = "'VERY.ODD.FILE.NAME(+1)'"
> asText = inherits(what, "AsIs") || is.raw(what)
> asText
[1] FALSE

So, maybe you need to set it to TRUE explicitly.  It's worth a try!

Cheers,
Ben



> 
> System: windows 7
> R version: 2.15.0
> 
> Thanks for your help
> 
> Best regards
> Magnus Eriksson
> 
> ______________________________________________
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Ben Tupper
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
180 McKown Point Rd. P.O. Box 475
West Boothbay Harbor, Maine   04575-0475 
http://www.bigelow.org