> I wish that client authors would use different logic for file:
> and ftp: type URLs. Some (most? all? the library?) are using the same
> logic for both of these. It's a shame. Intuitively,
>
> ftp://[user[:pass]@]host[:port]/path/path/file
>
> works for both Anonymous FTP and non-Anonymous FTP, and
>
> file:/path/path/file
>
> refers to a locally resident object.
The Library of Common Code supports format of an FTP URL indicated
above, but it is not generally recommended to put a `private' userid
and passwd in the URI - dummy ones as ftp:wwwaccess are ok.
For file URLs, it does try ftp as a last resort. However, I have in the
last two releases pointed out that this will be disabled in the next
major release as it causes very long timeouts if a non-existent local
file is requested.
-- cheers --
Henrik Frystyk