The File Transfer Protocol July 8, 1972
file An ordered set of computer data (including
programs) of arbitrary length uniquely
identified by a pathname.
mode The mode in which data is to be transferred
via the data connection. The mode defines
the data format including EOR and EOF. The
transfer modes defined in FTP are described
in Section III.A.
NVT The Network Virtual Terminal as defined in
the ARPANET TELNET Protocol.
NVFS The Network Virtual File System. A concept
which defines a standard network file system
with standard commands and pathname
conventions. FTP only partially embraces the
NFS concept at this time.
pathname Pathname is defined to be the character
string which must be input to a file system
by a user in order to identify a file.
Pathname normally contains device and/or
directory names, and file name specification.
FTP does not yet specify a standard pathname
convention. Each user must follow the file
naming conventions of hte file systems he
wishes to use.
record A sequential file may be structured as a
number of contiguous parts called records.
Record structures are supported by FTP but
are not mandatory.
reply A reply is an acknowledgment (positive or
negative) sent from server to user via the
telnet connections in response to FTP
commands. The general form of a reply is a
completion code (including error codes)
followed by an ASCII text string. The codes
are for use by programs and the text is for
human users.
server-FTP process A process or set of processes which perform
the function of file transfer in cooperation
with a user-FTP process. The server-FTP
process must interpret and respond to user
commands and initiate the data connection.