On Thu, 22 Jul 1999, Alan Barrett wrote:

> On Thu, 22 Jul 1999, Frederick Bruckman wrote:
> > ftp http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~ntp/ntp_spool/testing/ntp-4.0.94.tar.gz
> > 
> > immediately redirects to ntp-4.0.94a.tar.gz, same site, which is an
> > entirely different file, different checksum.
> 
> I suggest that we add a "don't follow HTTP redirects" option to ftp. 
> Following redirects to an URL with a different basename is always(?) the
> wrong thing for fetching a distfile.  Following redirects to an URL with
> the same basename but different server or directory name might often be
> OK, but if it ever happens then it's a sign that the MASTER_SITES in the
> pkg's Makefile is out of date.

How about a "strict" option for ftp such that the only redirections
allowed are to those which have the same basename (that which follows
'/' or '=')? This would deal properly with www.cpan.org, and would
even permit cgi's as long as they deliver the correct file. An error
message to the effect, "redirect to http://foo/bar.tar.gz not
permitted with -? option", would be nice, too.