Relative v.s. absolute paths

Several commands in the FTCL language make reference to relative and absolute paths. Understanding how relative and absolute paths are used in the local and remote environments is important to using the FTCL commands properly. The commands that make use of relative and/or absolute paths include:

Local Environment

In the local environment, absolute paths are defined by providing the full system path to the desired file or directory. Relative paths are defined by providing the path relative to the current local directory. The current local directory may be set using the lcd command. This directory is used to calculate the absolute path.

Example Relative Paths

Current Local Directory	Path	Resulting Path
c:/tmp	logs	c:/tmp/logs
c:/tmp	logs.txt	c:/tmp/logs.txt
c:/tmp	logs/logs.txt	c:/tmp/logs/logs.txt

Example Absolute Paths

When using absolute paths the Current Local Directory is ignored. Instead the absolute path is determined by the path provided.

Current Local Directory	Path	Resulting Path
c:/tmp	c:/www/images	c:/www/images
c:/tmp	c:/logs/archive	c:/logs/archive

Remote Environment

In the remote environment, absolute paths are defined by providing the full path to the desired file or directory as understood by the FTP/SFTP server. Relative paths are defined by providing the path relative to the current remote directory. The current remote directory may be set using the cd command. This directory is used to calculate the absolute path.

Example Relative Paths

Current Remote Directory	Path	Resulting Path
/var	logs	/var/logs
/var	logs.txt	/var/logs.txt
/var	logs/logs.txt	/var/logs/logs.txt

Example Absolute Paths

When using absolute paths the Current Local Directory is ignored. Instead the absolute path is determined by the path provided.

Current Remote Directory	Path	Resulting Path
/var	/home/users	/home/users
/var/	/home/users/jsmith	/home/users/jsmith