apache.commons.net V2.0 FTP/S Client: mature and interoperable?

[Fred Moore <fr...@gmail.com>]

Hi Niklas,

we are currently using Apache FTP Server (btw: kudos! great piece of work)
and are now looking at adopting a java FTP/S Client compliant component, we
noticed that in the FTP Server test suite you use the [yet unreleased] V2.0
of apache.commons.net which includes an FTP/S client.

This little gem is extremely well hidden in Apache-land AFAICT, no web site,
no wiki, no roadmap, ...

We are tempted to go for it but before doing so, we were wandering whether
you could share with us your opinions about this component in terms of
stability, maturity, compliance with RFCs, etc... plus suggest any
particular snapshot/tag of the codebase which you deem it can be trusted
more that the others (we are after compliance and stability more than
bleeding edge features).

I know this post is better suited for the commons.net mailing list, but your
personal opinion would be highly appreciated.

TIA,
FM

Re: apache.commons.net V2.0 FTP/S Client: mature and interoperable?

[Niklas Gustavsson <ni...@protocol7.com>]

On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 12:51 PM, Fred Moore <fr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> For FTPS, it's brand new in the 2.0 branch and
>> here we've seen more issues albeit nothing really serious.
>
> Can you provide pointers or more specific info on what is still broken (jira
> looks pretty clean
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NET?report=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.project:roadmap-panel
> )?

There is currently none that I'm aware of, patches has been quickly applied.

/niklas

Re: apache.commons.net V2.0 FTP/S Client: mature and interoperable?

[Fred Moore <fr...@gmail.com>]

Hi Niklas,

welcome back and thanks for the answer.

> For FTPS, it's brand new in the 2.0 branch and
> here we've seen more issues albeit nothing really serious.

Can you provide pointers or more specific info on what is still broken (jira
looks pretty clean
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NET?report=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.project:roadmap-panel
)?

TIA,
FM

Re: apache.commons.net V2.0 FTP/S Client: mature and interoperable?

[Niklas Gustavsson <ni...@protocol7.com>]

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 4:54 PM, Fred Moore <fr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> This little gem is extremely well hidden in Apache-land AFAICT, no web site,
> no wiki, no roadmap, ...

Agreed, since I'm now a commons commiter as well I guess I should
actually do something about it :-)

> We are tempted to go for it but before doing so, we were wandering whether
> you could share with us your opinions about this component in terms of
> stability, maturity, compliance with RFCs, etc...

For basic FTP functionality it's very good, we have had very few
issues where their interpretation of the RFC has differed from ours,
and in most cases it's been our fault.

For FTPS, it's brand new in the 2.0 branch and here we've seen more
issues albeit nothing really serious. In our test kit we probably
exercise more features than you would normally do in a typical client.

> plus suggest any
> particular snapshot/tag of the codebase which you deem it can be trusted
> more that the others (we are after compliance and stability more than
> bleeding edge features).

Since the 2.0 branch is pretty much targeted for a near-future
release, not a lot of development is going on. Instead it's focused on
stability and bug fixing. So, I would say that you should go for the
latest trunk. If you don't want to aim at a moving target, lock down
the latest version and use that.

> I know this post is better suited for the commons.net mailing list, but your
> personal opinion would be highly appreciated.

I'm on dev@commons.apache.org as well, so any list is fine if you want
to catch me :-)

/niklas