Manage FTP directory paths

You must specify to Caching Proxy whether you want the path names in FTP URLs to be interpreted as relative to the user's working directory or relative to the root directory. For example, if a user who is logged into an FTP server has a default working directory called /export/home/user1 and wants to retrieve a file called test1.exe from a subdirectory called test, the proxy uses the following URLs to retrieve the file from the FTP server, depending on how FTP URLs are interpreted:

If relative FTP URL paths are set, users can still specify an absolute path name by using the convention of escaping the initial slash character (/) with %2F to indicate the root directory. For example, if user1, whose working directory is /export/home/user1, wants to access a file in user2's working directory, /export/home/user2, the request ftp://user1:user1pw@FTPhost/%2Fexport/home/user2/file is interpreted correctly as a URL relative to the root directory / (that is, as an absolute path name), even if relative FTP URL path names have been chosen.

To specify how FTP URLs are to be interpreted, in the Configuration and Administration forms, select Proxy Configuration -> Proxy Performance. In the lower portion of the form, under FTP URL paths should be:, select absolute paths to specify the server's root directory or relative paths to specify the user's working directory as the start of the path.

This setting can also be changed in the proxy configuration file; for more information, see FTPUrlPath -- Specify how FTP URLs are interpreted.