AFTP File Transfer Types

The AFTP API supports both text and binary file transfers. A binary file transfer treats a file as a stream of bytes. None of the characters within the file are interpreted. Executable programs and other nontext files are usually transferred as binary files.

In an ASCII file transfer, files are transferred using ASCII characters and the text file format is preserved. If either the source or destination is an EBCDIC computer (an IBM host system, for example), AFTP on the EBCDIC computer translates from ASCII to EBCDIC when it receives a file and from EBCDIC to ASCII when it sends a file.

Note Text files on Windows NT, Windows 95, OS/2, and Microsoft® MS-DOS® can contain an end-of-file (EOF) character, which is the last character in the file. When AFTP transfers a text file containing an EOF character, AFTP does not send the EOF character, so the file appears to be one character smaller when it is received by the server. If the file is transferred in binary mode, AFTP sends the EOF character.