Re: ISC will likely be shutting down FTP access to ftp.isc.org soon (https will remain)

["Followup-To:" header set to news.software.nntp.]
On Thu, 26 Sep 2024 22:56:19 -0000 (UTC), Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Dan Mahoney <dmahoney@isc.org> wrote:
>

Ergo, it seems to be a simple enough matter to tell people who fetch
those usenet control files via anonymous FTP to simply switch to HTTPS. 
As a benefit, this also allows us to use the CDN provider we already use
for downloads.isc.org.  The url would remain ftp.isc.org, and the pathing
would remain the same.  We'd still sync the data from Russ as we already
do).

>
Switching to https is not so simple. Those of us who use it regularly
want to see directory listings. I get these automatically using an ftp
client but not when I use a browser. With a browser, subdirectories are
listed but Russ's README is not (I think there are three of them).
>
Every single directory, then, requires a frequently regenerated
index.html file that's literally a directory listing, both files and
subdirectories.

I've been running HTTP/HTTPS servers for several decades now, including
really obscure ones embedded on microcontrollers and I can't think of a
single one -- much less one you would consider using today that doesn't
have a built-in facility to dynamically generate a directory listing at
the time of requeste.  One does not need to (re-)generate index.html
files, the server will synthetically do that if configured properly.

I certainly will be sad to see FTP go away, but this is unlikely to
be a persuasive argument to anyone configuring or maintaining the
HTTP/HTTPS server.

--
"The avalanche has started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote."
  --Kosh