FTP command naming problem [report]

M.A. Padlipsky
1973 Request for Comments  
In using the File Transfer Protocol, I've noticed that the choice of names for two crucial commands is faulty. The commands are STOR, which tell the Server to take a file in, and RETR, which tells the Server to send a file out. The trouble is that telling the Server to "retrieve" a file sounds like a desire for the file to be taken in by the Server rather than be sent out. For that matter, telling the Server to "store" the file sounds like it could be either a command to send it out or a
more » ... to take it in. The names of the commands, then, are both connotatively ambiguous and not very mnemonic if they are thought of as commands to the Server. (If they're thought of as commands to the User Host, they make more sense --but they're not commands to the Use (Host.
doi:10.17487/rfc0506 dblp:journals/rfc/rfc506 fatcat:pmsw7wxc7jgadppxpyqtnivpmm