VMS Help DECnet-Plus, FTAM  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    This help documents the FTAM product, which implements the
    Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) File Transfer, Access and
    Management (FTAM) protocol.

    FTAM offers several user facilities that operate on any combination
    of files on your system (local files) and on files on other systems
    with FTAM applications (remote files). These facilities include:

    o  FTAM appending facility

       This facility enables you to append files by using the
       APPEND/APPLICATION_PROTOCOL=FTAM command. The facility allows
       the appending of one or more input files to a single output
       file, within or between FTAM applications.

    o  FTAM copying facility

       This facility enables you to copy files by using the COPY/APPLICATION_
       PROTOCOL=FTAM command. The facility allows the copying of one
       or more input files to a single output file, within or between
       FTAM applications.

    o  FTAM deletion facility

       This facility enables you to delete files by using the
       DELETE/APPLICATION_PROTOCOL=FTAM command.

    o  FTAM directory facility

       This facility enables you to display file attributes for one
       or more files by using the DIRECTORY/APPLICATION_PROTOCOL=FTAM
       command.

    o  FTAM renaming facility

       This facility enables you to rename files by using the
       RENAME/APPLICATION_PROTOCOL=FTAM command.

1 - File-specification

    The FTAM DCL commands accept any of the following file specifica-
    tion formats:

       rms-file-designation
       appl-address::rms-file-designation
       appl-address::"non-rms-file-designation"
       appl-address"initiator-id password account"::rms-file-designation
       appl-address"initiator-id password account"::"non-rms-file-
          designation"

    The following table describes the variables in these format state-
    ments:

    __________________________________________________________________
    Variable      Explanation
    __________________________________________________________________
    appl-address  An FTAM application address that corresponds to the
                  FTAM responder of an FTAM system. An FTAM responder
                  handles incoming requests for files from FTAM users.

    initiator-id  A character string that identifies an initiator
                  ID on the specified FTAM node. If you specify this
                  string in a local file specification, FTAM uses
                  the initiator ID as the user name of an OpenVMS
                  account.

    password      A string that identifies an FTAM filestore password.
                  If you specifiy this string in a local file specifi-
                  cation, FTAM uses the filestore password as the
                  login password for the OpenVMS account identified by
                  the initiator ID.

    account       A string that identifies an FTAM account name. If
                  you specify this string in a local file specifi-
                  cation, FTAM uses it as an OpenVMS account name. To
                  specify an account, you must also specify both a
                  user name and a password.

    rms-file-     A standard Record Management Services (RMS) file
    designation   specification, which contains one or more components
                  in the following format:

                  (device-name:[directory-name]file-name.file-
                  extension;version-number).

                  Except for the file name or file name delimiter
                  (.), all the components are optional.

                  For local files, the FTAM copying facility per-
                  mits standard DCL wildcards. See the "Wildcards"
                  subtopic for more information about DCL wildcards.

    non-rms-      A file designation whose format RMS cannot inter-
    file-         pret. A non-rms file designation contains whatever
    designation   information the remote FTAM system requires for
                  locating a remote file. Enclosing non-RMS file des-
                  ignations between double quotation marks ("non-rms-
                  file-designation") causes RMS to accept the enclosed
                  designation without trying to parse it. Failing
                  to enclose non-rms file designations within double
                  quotation marks causes an error.

                  Note that FTAM cannot handle a remote file des-
                  ignation that contains one or more double quotation
                  marks among its characters.
    __________________________________________________________________

    File designations equate to FTAM file names. An FTAM file name
    is a text string that identifies a file to an FTAM system. The
    FTAM system requesting a file (the initiator) supplies an FTAM
    file name to the FTAM system accepting the file request (the
    responder).

    FTAM treats FTAM file names as follows:

    o  When you request a remote file, the FTAM initiator separates
       the FTAM application address from the file designation.  The
       application address translates into the address of an FTAM
       application on a particular FTAM system. The file designation,
       which includes everything to the right of the double colons
       (::) excluding double quotation marks that enclose an FTAM
       file designation, serves unchanged as an FTAM file name.

    o  When processing an incoming file request, the FTAM responder
       treats whatever string it receives for the FTAM file name
       as an RMS file designation.