Fetch Softworks

modified headers in downloaded file (2 posts)

• Started 18 years ago by TestingFetch
• Latest reply 18 years ago from Jim Matthews

• TestingFetch Member

  I'm wondering if someone can help me figure out why Fetch seems to behaves differently than native ftp on OS X (or other GUI fetch products for OS X). Here's my situation: I have a binary file that I can download via Fetch from a Solaris 7 box and the file then "works" as an image when imported into PowerPoint. If I download the file via FTP from the command line, it downloads fine, but then doesn't open. If I compare the top of the two binary files using the "strings" command after download, I can see that the file retreived via Fetch has some information about the type of file. The file pulled down via FTP on the command line has that information, plus more, in the header (just as the file does on the Solaris 7 box), yet doesn't open. Any ideas what magic Fetch is doing to manage this? Even if I compress or tar the file on the Solaris box before FTP-ing, it won't open after download with native FTP, whereas Fetch retrieves the file AND decompresses the gzip or tar file automatically--and it then opens. Looking at the Fetch transcript, it appears I am doing the same things Fetch is when downloading via FTP on the command line (passive mode, binary transfer).

  Posted 18 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  My best guess is that this file is in MacBinary or AppleSingle format, which Fetch decodes automatically. The command line ftp client does not decode those formats, and I don't know that any other OS X GUI clients do either.

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 18 years ago #