ftp over ssl via openssh

[Edward Peschko]

On Wed, Feb 02, 2005 at 10:42:51AM +1100, Darren Tucker wrote:
> Edward Peschko wrote:
> >Anyways, I could use this or lftp, but it seems silly to have two 
> >different distributions (lftp, openssh) with two separate 
> >end user interfaces.  Why did the openssh project choose not to 
> >include it?
> 
> Because OpenSSH is an SSH (aka SecSH) implementation and ftp-over-ssl 
> has absolutely nothing to do with that.  They're completely unrelated 
> protocols.

... then why is sftp included in the distribution, as well as ssh?
Technically,  sftp is not a 'secure shell' (its a secure service), 
and yet it is included.

Ed

(
    ps - and yes, I'm being a bit facetious here. True, the difference
    between sftp and ftps is that ftps uses sshd as a server mechanism,
    and that you package both together for convenience.

    However, its pretty damn inconvenient from a users point of view - 
    there are businesses out there that use the terms sftp and ftps pretty 
    much interchangeably.


    I just stumbled on this - and when I asked them if they have sftp 
    support, they said 'yes' of course. They then proceeded to point me 
    to ftps - and only till after I wasted a good 3 hours did I realize
    their mistake.


    Hence, I think it would be prudent to simply say something like:
    'it does not look like you are connecting to an sftp server here -
    it looks like a ftps server. Please download either ckermit or 
    curl to deal with this.'

    Either that, or simply mention it in the docs. Or just include lftp in 
    the distribution, and be done with it... I wager that at least 100 
    times as many people have heard of openssh as have heard of lftp.
)