can't figure out how to make ftp work

[akimd (Akim Demaille)]

Hi all,

The sysadm guys in this building have changed something, I don't know what, that makes FTP even harder than before. It looks like I need to use passive ftp, and actually, plain old passive mode (i.e., in order to be able to use /usr/bin/ftp, I need to pass epsv4 off as mentiomed in "man ftp").

CyberDuck makes it. curl makes it too.

But I can't figure out how to tell port to do that.

DEBUG: Executing org.macports.main (automake)
--->  Fetching automake
DEBUG: Executing org.macports.fetch (automake)
--->  automake-1.11.1.tar.bz2 doesn't seem to exist in /opt/local/var/macports/distfiles/automake
DEBUG: Pinging mirrors.ibiblio.org...
DEBUG: Pinging mirrors.kernel.org...
DEBUG: Pinging www.mirrorservice.org...
DEBUG: Pinging ftp.funet.fi...
DEBUG: Pinging ftp.kddlabs.co.jp...
DEBUG: Pinging ftp.dti.ad.jp...
DEBUG: Pinging ftp.informatik.hu-berlin.de...
DEBUG: Pinging ftp.lip6.fr...
DEBUG: Pinging ftp.chg.ru...
DEBUG: Pinging mirror.internode.on.net...
DEBUG: Pinging mirror.pacific.net.au...
DEBUG: Pinging mirror.aarnet.edu.au...
DEBUG: Pinging ftp.unicamp.br...
DEBUG: Pinging ftp.gnu.org...
DEBUG: Pinging distfiles.macports.org...
DEBUG: Pinging arn.se.distfiles.macports.org...
DEBUG: Pinging aarnet.au.distfiles.macports.org...
DEBUG: mirrors.ibiblio.org ping time is 125.267
DEBUG: mirrors.kernel.org ping time is 62.301
DEBUG: www.mirrorservice.org ping time is 12.998
DEBUG: ftp.funet.fi ping time is 58.000
DEBUG: ftp.kddlabs.co.jp ping time is 10000
DEBUG: ftp.dti.ad.jp ping time is 267.100
DEBUG: ftp.informatik.hu-berlin.de ping time is 10000
DEBUG: ftp.lip6.fr ping time is 5.906
DEBUG: ftp.chg.ru ping time is 64.089
DEBUG: mirror.internode.on.net ping time is 403.582
DEBUG: mirror.pacific.net.au ping time is 315.139
DEBUG: mirror.aarnet.edu.au ping time is 401.873
DEBUG: ftp.unicamp.br ping time is 221.862
DEBUG: ftp.gnu.org ping time is 10000
DEBUG: distfiles.macports.org ping time is 162.716
DEBUG: arn.se.distfiles.macports.org ping time is 47.185
DEBUG: aarnet.au.distfiles.macports.org ping time is 400.189
--->  Attempting to fetch automake-1.11.1.tar.bz2 from ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/gnu/automake
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0 1041k    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:--  0:00:08 --:--:--     0

(hanged endlessly).

I have tried to tell port to go passive, but I'm not sure it understands what I want from it:

$ grep fetch /opt/local/etc/macports/macports.conf
# Rsync server to fetch MacPorts sources from. Note that this is only used
fetch.use_epsv      no

I don't know how to address this issue once for all. The documentation is a bit terse on this regard. I was not able to undertand what tool is used. According to other tickets, it should be libcurl, but that does not tell me either how to fix the problem by making ftp work, or simply by telling port to drop ftp dead and use only http.

Thanks!

[tobypeterson]

Did you try setting fetch.use_epsv to yes? Anyway, this isn't what the ticket system is for. Try a mailing list.

[akimd (Akim Demaille)]

Yes, I tried, and it does not work. It is also documented to be the default.

I made this a ticket because IMHO at least the documentation is insufficient on this regard :-/.

[akimd (Akim Demaille)]

And btw, many times people answered that they fetched the tarball by hand, and put it where port expects it to proceed. This is, imho, a very painful workaround that people should not have to do.