Replace existing
Posted: 2024-04-18 12:58
My internet connection just dropped for ten minutes in the middle of an upload, so I restarted FileZilla. (Maybe I didn't need to but initially thought the upload site had gone down).
Anyway, on rerunning the upload FZ spotted some of the files already exist and asked whether to skip, overwrite or compare date and length. I opted for compare date and length.
But I'm left wondering if this is completely safe. Without knowing the inner workings of FZ or FTP in general, I dunno if files are written in the normal way, growing as necessary, or if it tries to be clever by allocating the space then filling it. In the latter case comparing date and length could still leave you with half-empty files (and I guess also in the former as files grow a block at a time).
Or maybe files are created as .tmp then renamed when complete, in which case it's fine, but I think FTP predates file extensions.
(FTP would be so much more reliable if the original spec had allowed a checksum check.)
Anyway, on rerunning the upload FZ spotted some of the files already exist and asked whether to skip, overwrite or compare date and length. I opted for compare date and length.
But I'm left wondering if this is completely safe. Without knowing the inner workings of FZ or FTP in general, I dunno if files are written in the normal way, growing as necessary, or if it tries to be clever by allocating the space then filling it. In the latter case comparing date and length could still leave you with half-empty files (and I guess also in the former as files grow a block at a time).
Or maybe files are created as .tmp then renamed when complete, in which case it's fine, but I think FTP predates file extensions.
(FTP would be so much more reliable if the original spec had allowed a checksum check.)