No Outgoing FTP Commands in FTP Trace

[GJS]

Is it possible to log the outgoing FTP commands when "FTP trace" (and perhaps "Operational details") are enabled in the Log Pane?

I need to report a bug to the developer of the Android SFTP server I am using. I am including the BC log with all Log Panel options enabled. The trace does not include the outgoing FTP commands which BC sends to the server, so I have interspersed comments, as shown below. I think the FTP commands would be helpful in interpreting the log.

I am using BC Version 4.3.4 (build 24657).

[B][COLOR=#2980b9]# Upload some files to FTP server host:[/COLOR][/B]
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:01 AM Copied C:\Data\Audio\CDs\Classical\[Mechanical]\Dutch Street Organ, Volume 1\Straat Draaiorgel (Pierement) 'De Negentiger'\01 Vollstadt - Avec aplomb marche (March 'With Confiden...mp3 to sftp://[email protected]_S9_Wired:2222/5A98-C42D/Music/Classical/[Mechanical]/Dutch Street Organ, Volume 1/Straat Draaiorgel (Pierement) 'De Negentiger'
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:03 AM Copied C:\Data\Audio\CDs\Classical\[Mechanical]\Dutch Street Organ, Volume 1\Straat Draaiorgel (Pierement) 'De Negentiger'\02 Baker - Santa Lucia bij nacht (Santa Lucia at Ni...mp3 to sftp://[email protected]_S9_Wired:2222/5A98-C42D/Music/Classical/[Mechanical]/Dutch Street Organ, Volume 1/Straat Draaiorgel (Pierement) 'De Negentiger'
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:05 AM Copied C:\Data\Audio\CDs\Classical\[Mechanical]\Dutch Street Organ, Volume 1\Straat Draaiorgel (Pierement) 'De Negentiger'\03 Een beetje vrede, een beetje liefde (A L...mp3 to sftp://[email protected]_S9_Wired:2222/5A98-C42D/Music/Classical/[Mechanical]/Dutch Street Organ, Volume 1/Straat Draaiorgel (Pierement) 'De Negentiger'

[B][COLOR=#2980b9]# Listing request:[/COLOR][/B]
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:05 AM drwxrwxrwx 1 gjs gjs 0 Mar 12 09:31 Dutch Street Organ, Volume 1
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:05 AM FTP parser: x-Scooter-SFTP

03/12/20 Thu 9:32:05 AM drwxrwxrwx 1 gjs gjs 0 Mar 12 09:32 Straat Draaiorgel (Pierement) 'De Negentiger'
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:05 AM FTP parser: x-Scooter-SFTP

03/12/20 Thu 9:32:05 AM -rw-rw-rw- 1 gjs gjs 13125632 Apr 7 2010 01 Vollstadt - Avec aplomb marche (March 'With Confiden...mp3
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:05 AM -rw-rw-rw- 1 gjs gjs 7960576 Apr 7 2010 02 Baker - Santa Lucia bij nacht (Santa Lucia at Ni...mp3
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:05 AM -rw-rw-rw- 1 gjs gjs 8892416 Mar 12 09:32 03 Een beetje vrede, een beetje liefde (A L...mp3
[B][COLOR=#2980b9]# Last file incorrectly shows date/time of upload ----------^[/COLOR][/B]
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:05 AM FTP parser: x-Scooter-SFTP
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:05 AM Successfully synchronized 3 items. Completed in 7.08 seconds.

[COLOR=#2980b9][B]# Second listing request:[/B][/COLOR]
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:27 AM -rw-rw-rw- 1 gjs gjs 13125632 Apr 7 2010 01 Vollstadt - Avec aplomb marche (March 'With Confiden...mp3
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:27 AM -rw-rw-rw- 1 gjs gjs 7960576 Apr 7 2010 02 Baker - Santa Lucia bij nacht (Santa Lucia at Ni...mp3
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:27 AM -rw-rw-rw- 1 gjs gjs 8892416 Apr 7 2010 03 Een beetje vrede, een beetje liefde (A L...mp3
[B][COLOR=#2980b9]# Last file now correctly shows original mod date ----------^[/COLOR][/B]
03/12/20 Thu 9:32:27 AM FTP parser: x-Scooter-SFTP

-- George Snyder

[Aaron]

The amount of logging for an SFTP is inherently limited given the secure nature of the protocol. While different options can be enabled in our Log Panel options, they only apply to the subset of protocols that can use them (FTP can use the most). It's something we'd like to expand on but not likely something we could tackle soon. I believe WinSCP can show a bit more debugging info; does making a connection with it help?

[GJS]

I'm not suggesting anything complicated. The FTP trace currently in the log is apparently output from SFTP 'put' and 'ls' commands. However, the 'put' and 'ls' commands themselves are not shown. My suggestion is simply to log such outgoing commands. Commands with sensitive security information could be sanitized in the log. No internal protocol information is needed.

I am making progress creating a command script test case to demonstrate the problem, using Windows OpenSSH SFTP. It would be much easier if I knew exactly what options BC uses with these commands. I am assuming simply 'put -f -p ...' and 'ls -l ...', but it would be nice to know for sure.

I am starting to suspect that the server does not implement the "[email protected]" extension, in which case the '-f' option won't work. If BC assumes it does, that could be a problem.

[Zoë]

SFTP is a binary protocol. It doesn’t have plain text commands like FTP(S) does, so we can’t log the exact messages we’re sending. It’s quite possible it wouldn’t help them debug it anyway; several of the bugs we’ve had to fix/workaround were issues with the binary layout of the specific messages.

[GJS]

Thank you for the clarification. I was confused by resemblance of the log messages to those in interactive SFTP clients.

I duplicated the problem using the Windows OpenSSH SFTP client, and sent a test case to the developer.