Re: LYNX-DEV Option Needed!

[Larry W. Virden, x2487]

> This is exactly where my idea of "LCD" ("Local CD") comes
Frankly, I do like the idea of being able to cd in side Lynx; or at
least being able to type in a full pathname when doing a download and
having that directory used as the default the next time I go to do a
download...

> Now, when you start up ftp, it remembers "pwd" somewhere,
> and when you tell it go "get" some file, it then grabs
> it, and stores it in the file-name-path composed of
> the file-name-part (the part after all the slashes) used
> for GETTING the file, PREFIXED by that remembered
> string that as default has the pwd from startup (with
> a slash appended).

Actually, the way it works _on Unix_ as far as I can tell (without taking a
peek at ftp source code, is to use the native nature of Unix processes.
Each process has a current working directory somewhere in the tree.  This
is buried inside the internal blocks that unix maintains for a process.
Ftp just takes the simple name of the file being retrieved and store in
in the current working directory.

Amazingly enough, that's what Lynx does to!

What _is_ different is that the ftp authors added an lcd command which
tells ftp to tell the Unix kernel to change the process's current working
directory.

On Unix, the full pathname of a file is never stored in Unix itself;
instead mkdir creates new entries in a file of type directory and then
a simple filename (without any /) is stored in the final file of
type directory.

> LCD makes it (a) much easier, and (b) far more FOOLPROOF,
> esp when you have a BUNCH of links/files to download.

Agreed
-- 
Larry W. Virden                 INET: address@hidden
<URL:http://www.teraform.com/%7Elvirden/> <*> O- "We are all Kosh."
Unless explicitly stated to the contrary, nothing in this posting should 
be construed as representing my employer's opinions.
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