At 01:31 PM 4/3/2015, IETF Administrative Director wrote: >All; > >The Technology Management Committee of the IAOC is considering >recommending to the IAOC ending support for FTP to retrieve files >from the IETF servers and would like to hear from the community >before the IAOC taking its decision. This does not include >rfc-editor.org. > >The use of FTP to retrieve files from the IETF servers has been >declining steadily. > >The files made available with that protocol are also available using >http and rsync. (See the modules exposed at rsync.ietf.org using >"rsync rsync.ietf.org::") > >The majority of the current FTP traffic appears to be from mirror >sites that would be better served using rsync. > >Input received by 20 April will inform the decision. I still use FTP occasionally for third party transfers (e.g. between two remote machines while controlling the transfer from a third). I don't use FTP for RFC retrieval like that, but there may be others who do as that functionality isn't in HTTP or RSYNC. There are also a few programs that use FTP to emulate a file system so you can do drags and drops. Users may not even realize that its FTP under the hood. That said - I don't have an objection to removing FTP from the list of retrieval methods. But I don't think we should do it as Stephen suggests and just turn it off. Comes under the heading of "conservative in what you send". Announce it and take a while to see if folks start moving off or object strenuously. Mike >Thanks > >Ray