Subject: ls -l problem on Linux

From: Cliff Corder <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 10:50:34 -0500

I have been trying to get the guestgroup feature off wu-ftpd to work and
have been looking everywhere and trying everything.  I am at a point
where ls works but ls -l does not.  I have been reading about static ls
as a solution or making sure the right libraries are in the lib
directory.  I have tried both but I may be doing somrthing wrong (most
likely with getting a static ls.  I keep finding instructions for
Solaris but would that work at all?
Is there anyone who can shed some light on my predicament.

Thanks
-- 
=====================
Cliff Corder
[email-masked]
Global Internet & Network Services
P.O. Box 10271
College Station, TX 77842
888.932.5678
409.268.7846
http://www.globalnets.com/

---

From: Anders Thulin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 May 1997 08:15:17 +0200 (MET DST)

Cliff Corder <[email-masked]> writes:

> where ls works but ls -l does not. 

  This may not be helpful -- it's just an observation that possibly could be
relevant.

  In those clients I have used (Unix-based ones), the client command 'ls'
translates to the FTP command NLST.  'ls -l'  almost always translates to
'NLST -l' which is a request for a list of files matching '-l'. 
No other interpretation is allowed by RFC959.

  From that point of view, 'ls -l' shouldn't work, unless you happen to have
a file or directory named '-l' in your current directory. WU FTP, however, seems
to have extended the FTP protocol to allow 'NLST -<anything>' as a way of
passing option on to 'ls'. (There's an exev at bottom, so there seems to be no
way of doing any other mischief than the 'ls' program allows.)

  The command that should be used is the one that translates to 'LIST', which
produces a file listing intended for human eyes. 

  I suspect a safe FTP would not call any external programs for either of these
functions. It is admittedly rather convenient to do so, though.
  
  ---

  It sounds rather as if your 'ls -l'  somehow brings extra functionality,
for instance by dynamic linking.  If you have an 'ldd' command, or anything
that shows what dynamic libraries are required by the ls executable, that
should probably help you get the right libraries 

  The shell command 'chroot' is sometimes useful for debugging these things:

	% chroot ~ftp /bin/ls -l

Anders Thulin       [email-masked]        013-23 55 32
Telia Engineering AB, Teknikringen 6, S-583 30 Linkoping, Sweden