Question : FTP packet tracing

Normally we use use data compression (zip) before FTP'ing a file. This allows us to check for data integrity
simply by uncompressing. Failure to uncompress implies data corruption.

However, we now need to FTP to a destination where data compression is not wanted. We are executing
the FTP from SCO UNIX to a Window 2000 PC. We are looking for a way to test data integrity without zipping
the data prior to FTP'ing.  From the FTP prompt, if I type the word 'trace' it toggles between 'Packet
tracing on' and 'Packet tracing off'. The manual seems to imply that packet tracing is not implemented
at this time. Does anyone know if there is a way to use packet tracing, or another way to verify that data corruption doesn't occur during the FTP process?

Answer : FTP packet tracing

We FTP gigabytes of data per day without corruption but occasionally a link will drop or a machine will lockup or reboot and AIX's FTP doesn't really supply a good way of confirming that a given transfer was complete (there's more detail, but not worth going into). So, I have a script to FTP files that simply writes the local file size and remote file size after the transfer into temporary files that I then "diff". If they're alike, there's a really good possibility that the xfer was ok and I move on to the next file transfer.

Droby10's solution is a little more elegant but I put my script together in 5 minutes and I don't rely on anything other than FTP access to the remote machine and a 10 line shell script.

If you have corruption problems, you may have hardware or physical layer problems. It isn't likely that FTP is the cause.

Good luck.
Steve