How to read the response from LIST command sent to FTP?

[ariel_ro]

Hello!
I have a problem reading the modification date for files from a LIST response from FTP.
It shows something like this:

drwxr-xr-x 4 username username 4096 Dec 9 22:37 .
drwx--x--x 11 username username 4096 Dec 9 22:30 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 username username 146 Dec 9 22:37 File.js
-rw-r--r-- 1 username username 187 Dec 9 22:34 onefile.html
drwxr-xr-x 3 username username 4096 Dec 9 22:38 sites_html_1
drwxr-xr-x 2 username username 4096 Dec 9 22:36 sites_html_2
-rw-r--r-- 1 username username 142 Dec 9 22:37 test.js
drwxr-x--- 5 username 99 4096 Apr 8 2008 .htpasswds

As you can see, besides the last file, the rest of them have the hour of the last change.
I would like to know after what interval of time the hour dissappears and the year takes its place, so I can calculate the year for the ones that don't show that.

Any help will be highly appreciated!

Best regards,
Ariel

[tpl]

if by "ftp" you can connect to a server, then you
can use "ssh" also: then "ls -l" shows year,date,time
&c

[ariel_ro]

I connect to FTP using sockets, not the ftp command from SSH.

[DasPadre]

The interval is greater than 12 months. Any Month Day and time displayed is the Current Year otherwise it shows Month Day and Year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[drl]

Hi.

Assuming that ftp LIST uses the same rule as GNU ls, because:

     ls [remote-directory] [local-file]
                 Print a listing of the contents of a directory on the remote
                 machine.  The listing includes any system-dependent informa-
                 tion that the server chooses to include; for example, most
                 UNIX systems will produce output from the command 'ls -l'.

-- excerpt from man ftp

and:

10.1.6 Formatting file timestamps

By default, file timestamps are listed in abbreviated form.  Most
locales use a timestamp like `2002-03-30 23:45'.  However, the default
POSIX locale uses a date like `Mar 30  2002' for non-recent timestamps,
and a date-without-year and time like `Mar 30 23:45' for recent
timestamps.

   A timestamp is considered to be "recent" if it is less than six
months old, and is not dated in the future.  If a timestamp dated today
is not listed in recent form, the timestamp is in the future, which
means you probably have clock skew problems which may break programs
like `make' that rely on file timestamps.

   The following option changes how file timestamps are printed ...

-- excerpt from info coreutils ls

For full details, read the sections.

However, if the system to which you are connected is not *nix, I have no idea, and you will need to consult the remote documentation ... cheers, drl

[ariel_ro]

Thanks for the replies.
I assumed it was something about 6 months, judging by some measurements I did. However, this ensures me about my original idea.
Thanks a lot!

[drl]

Hi.

You are welcome. The man and info pages are powerful sources of information.

A thought -- you could test the field following the date of the month for the inclusion of a ":". If so, then it's not a year.

I don't know if this would help for the responses from all servers, but probably useful for *nix. ... cheers, drl

[Sangal-Arun]

If you just want to calculate the time of that file which is showing just the year not the exact hour/minutues ... then --time-style=long-iso or --time-style=full-iso options in linux "ls" command will suffice this request.

[/E*Fare/Users/qabuild/aksutil/P] $ ls -l view.pl
-rwxr-xr-x  1 qabuild DENCCEFS 7792 Apr  3  2007 view.pl*

[/E*Fare/Users/qabuild/aksutil/P] $ ls -l --time-style=long-iso view.pl
-rwxr-xr-x  1 qabuild DENCCEFS 7792 2007-04-03 08:55 view.pl*

[/E*Fare/Users/qabuild/aksutil/P] $ ls -l --time-style=full-iso view.pl
-rwxr-xr-x  1 qabuild DENCCEFS 7792 2007-04-03 08:55:03.805406000 +0000 view.pl*

Now, as its showing the exact changed time of that file... you can calculate the elapsed time.

asangal

[drl]

Hi, Sangal-Arun.

The OP is getting this from an ftp LIST request. Can you demonstrate how your suggestion would work in that situation? ... cheers, drl