FTP lacking file name completion on 9.04

[Graham Todd]

On Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:50:46 +0200
Tero Pesonen <ubuntu-users at tpesonen.net> uttered these words:

> Hi!
> 
> I just noticed that the FTP command on my 9.04 will not complete
> filenames (i.e. by pressing TAB, similar to bash.) On my old SUSE box,
> FTP does this, making downloading files with long names, hidden behind
> long paths composed of long and complex directory names, much easier
> and faster. The man page offers no help. It does talk about filename
> globbing (disabled by -g), but I don't know what that means -- my
> dictionary knows no such verb as "to glob."
> 
> Can I turn filename completion on somehow, or do I need to recompile
> FTP with this feature enabled?
> 
> Thanks for any ideas!
> 
> Tero Pesonen
> 

Tero,

I can't help you about filename completion, but I can about globbing.

A brief but full explanation of globbing can be found at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glob_(programming)

However, glob is an old Unix command which allows you to search for a
pattern in coding, as in "use the glob *.log to match all those log
files".

Many Unix shells incorporate globbing as does the Windows Powershell.

-- 
Graham Todd