'Stuck' MDTM command; also TIME anomalies

Using XP Pro 32-bit SP3 plus all post-hotfixes from m$, SmartFTP is version 3.0.1027.7

I am having two 'issues' I could use some help with.

First issue. There is an MDTM command being issued whenever I login to some hosts, these hosts experienced some errors with MDTM on a long-ago version of SmartFTP and the MDTM command somehow got 'stuck' in the logon sequence -- way back then. I have reported this before. It persists to today. How do I get rid of it?

Here is part of logfile from this morning, as example:

[08:11:37] TYPE A
[08:11:37] 200 Type set to A; form set to N.
[08:11:37] PASV
[08:11:37] 227 Entering Passive Mode (xxx,xxx,xxx,xxxx,xxx,xxx)
[08:11:37] Opening data connection to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Port: xxxxx
[08:11:37] LIST -aL
[08:11:37] 150 Opening data connection for /bin/ls.
[08:11:37] 226 Transfer complete.
[08:11:37] 3021 bytes transferred. (95.1 KB/s) (31 ms)
[08:11:37] MDTM 4759031644_20090002.txt <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< HOW TO REMOVE????
[08:11:37] 213 20090303165323
[08:11:37] Timezone offset: -28800 seconds (-8.0 hours)


Second issue. I am seeing anomalies with the time display on recent files. Probably a daylight savings time issue?

Here are some example screenshots (taken during the same login session as the logfile, above):

1. Displayed file modified times are incorrect in the directory listing.
In this screenshot example, displayed time for the file is 8:48 but the correct modified time is actually 7:48.




2. Access the example file's properties. The time shown in the properties is the correct time. NOTE that the directory listing time has updated concurrently with the access to the file's properties. The new time remains on the directory display after closing the properties, until refreshed.




Thanks and regards,
--appyface

Hello ..

>1) MDTM command
You cannot disable it. Does it cause any problems?

>local time
Your server does not support MLSD and therefore returns the date/time of the files in the directory listing in local time. SmartFTP is trying to figure out the timezone with the MDTM command in 1).

>property
The properties dialog sends the MDTM command in the background which returns the date/time in UTC.

Conclusion
If you have a chance switch to a web hosting provider or server which supports MLSD.

Regards,
Mat

Hi Mat,

Thanks for fast reply.

>1) MDTM command
You cannot disable it. Does it cause any problems?

Sometimes the command 'picks' a file that is not actually there, and I get a directory error. I suppose it is not hurting anything except sometimes the system hangs on the command for a time.

>local time
Your server does not support MLSD and therefore returns the date/time of the files in the directory listing in local time. SmartFTP is trying to figure out the timezone with the MDTM command in 1).

This is confusing to me. The server is local to me (it's in the same room!) and there are no time zone differences, it is configured to the same time zone I'm in.

If I use telnet to login the times are correctly displayed in an "ls -l" directory command.

>property
The properties dialog sends the MDTM command in the background which returns the date/time in UTC.

OK, sounds reasonable. But what does that mean? How does that affect the issue?

Conclusion
If you have a chance switch to a web hosting provider or server which supports MLSD.

I don't understand. What would a web provider have to do with my IBM AIX servers?

Thanks and regards,
--appyface

You can manually set the timezone in the favorite properties. This should take care of the date/time problem you have in the listing.

You always verify the directory listing (respectively the date/time of the files) the server sends back to the client in the raw directory listing. To get the raw listing right-click on the folder and select "Show Raw Listing" from the context menu.

Regards
Mat

Hi Mat,

Setting the time zone in the favorites properties does take care of the directory listing, thanks for that hint, I had not looked for that option.

Would you please help me understand why I need to set the timezone? The server is in the timezone I already want, I don't need any alteration of the times (the raw listing does show the correct times). Sorry for being dense, but I'm still not understanding why SmartFTP is displaying the wrong time when timezone is set to 'automatic'?

Also, different issue. I noticed while editing my favorites for time zone by using "manage favorites", the sort on Host column does not work. And after any changes, the display automatically refreshes to sorting ascending by Name column. FYI.

Thanks again for help,
--appyface

>Manually set timezone
SmartFTP uses the MDTM command to figure out the server time zone. Apparently something goes wrong with time zone calculation. Maybe the server returns the wrong time, maybe it's a daylight saving issue or something else. Manually setting the timezone works around this issue. If you would like to have exact date/times it is recommended to use a modern FTP server product.

>Sort by host
Thanks for reporting it. This is a bug in our product. I will be fixed in the next build.

Regards,
Mat

Thanks Mat, is there a way I can further debug what is going wrong with the MDTM command? I know of no reason why that should not work, so I'd like to look into that? If there is a bug in the MDTM command I can report it to IBM.

Thanks again,
--appyface

BTW, We're using IBM AIX 6.1 which is the latest stable build of AIX. I realize unix is archaic OS (as a general disclaimer) but since 6.1 is a 'modern' build I'm not sure what we would do to become more modern than that? In any case I'm not in a position to suggest my company change 500+ AIX servers for some other FTP product because one copy of SmartFTP can't find the date Telnet and other products work fine and return correct date so that would be a hard sell I'm afraid...

Can you send us the raw directory listing of this directory? Please also include the log with the MDTM command right after the login and the commands that are sent right you open the properties dialog of one file. You can send the logs/raw listing to support@smartftp.com

If you prefer to communicate through IM just tell us your contact information in the email as well.

Thanks
Mat

Hi Mat,

An email will be along shortly to your support address, with details and screenshots. Thanks for your help!

--appyface

Thanks. I know it is probably not possible but a demo account on one of your servers would be very helpful.

Thanks
Mat

>Sort by Host
Fixed in the latest version: https://www.smartftp.com/download