On Sat, 2004-01-31 at 09:36, Rodolfo J. Paiz wrote: > Can someone comment on lftp vs. ncftp? Reliability, security, convenience? > Anything? Here's a really good comparison of lftp/ncftp by Paul Iadonisi from a thread on the whiteboxlinux-devel list: "... To start with, to answer your question about ncftpget, no, it's not unique: there is also an lftpget command that does basically the same thing. Second, it's GPLed, unlike ncftp. Red Hat has typically gravitated toward GPLed software where it makes sense (but not universally -- witness pushing PostgreSQL[transactions,etc.] over MySQL[no transactions, historically]). Third, it uses readline and keeps history even between sessions using readline. Though ncftp (I think) does have history features, they're, well, weird. I only say weird because it's different. I prefer history functionality that works like that in bash. Heck, lftp even honors your vi/emacs setting (I prefer vi settings). Ncftp, because it is not GPL compatible can never use the GNU readline library, since that library is GPLed and not LGPLed. Fourth, though it's not really intrusive in ncftp, there's no advertising for some commercial ftp server when you quit lftp or any other time. When I'm reading an online news site, I expect ads (although they are severely reduced, thanks to privoxy ;-), but not in basic command line tools. It's just one of my pet peeves. I was a long time faithful ncftp user and thought I couldn't do with out it. Once I started using it, I never went back to the 'regular' ftp client still bundled with Red Hat. But, at least with older version of ncftp, I found it horribly broken with some ftp servers. So I went on a hunt for a better client and found lftp even before Red Hat started bundling it. Oddly enough, lftp was working great for a while and then suddenly after one or another version upgrade, IT became broken in similar ways that ncftp was broken. I briefly switched back to ncftp and found it had been largely fixed. Soon, lftp stabilized as well, and I switched back and haven't turned back in since. So, though both ncftp and lftp are probably on par feature-wise and stability-wise (non-brokenness), the few small advantages of lftp make me not miss ncftp all that much (GNU readline, GPL, others I'm sure I've left out). Try it, you just might like it." HTH. -- Jason Dixon, RHCE DixonGroup Consulting http://www.dixongroup.net
