From 71868e74d6f052cc79fec676ce6d3ad02d227913 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Brett Cannon Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 00:48:42 +0000 Subject: Add another point in the "Restrictions" section about how the handling of FTP URLs will seemingly succeed to read a URL that points to a file whose permissions you do not have to read. Backport candidate once everyone agrees with the wording. --- Doc/lib/liburllib.tex | 17 +++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+) diff --git a/Doc/lib/liburllib.tex b/Doc/lib/liburllib.tex index 47348c1..c411cc8 100644 --- a/Doc/lib/liburllib.tex +++ b/Doc/lib/liburllib.tex @@ -329,6 +329,23 @@ returned data is HTML, you can use the module \refmodule{htmllib}\refstmodindex{htmllib} to parse it. \item +The code handling the FTP\index{FTP} protocol cannot differentiate between a +file and a directory and can lead to unexpected behavior when attempting to +read a URL that points to a file that is not accessible. +If the URL ends in a \code{/} then it is assumed to be a +directory and will be handled as such only. But if an attempt to read a file +leads to a 550 error (signaling the URL cannot be found or is not accessible, +often for permission reasons), then the path is treated as a directory in order +to handle the case of when a directory is specified by a URL but a trailing +\code{/} is left off. +This can lead to the apparent successful fetching of a file whose read +permissions you do not have by still succeeding by returning the directory +listing for the file from treating it as a directory. +If more fine-grained control is needed, consider using the \module{ftplib} +module, subclassing \class{FancyURLOpener}, or changing \var{_urlopener} to +meet your needs. + +\item This module does not support the use of proxies which require authentication. This may be implemented in the future. -- cgit v0.12