FAQ

What do I need to use JavaFTP API ?
You just need Java 1.2 (1.0 & 1.1 may work).

Where can I get Java ?
Both JDK or JRE can be downloaded from http://www.java.sun.com.

What's the license ?
JavaFTP API is GPL

When I try to retrieve a directory list I got a null pointer exception
An extract from LeachFTP Documentation:
Problems parsing weird Unix listings, dirlist parsing is currently done by tokenizing each line with space as a separator.
This will fail if there is no gap between two columns in a dir listing, like here:

drwxr-xr-x 402 ftpmirrorietf 8192 Jul 14 05:33 ietf
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root other 512 Jul 7 19:44 etc

Parsing will fail on the first line (no gap between ftpmirror and ietf).

Directory listings are the biggest pain for every ftp client developer, here is a small excerpt from the different directory listing formats I have come across:

Unix style:
dr-xr-xr-x 2 0 1 512 Apr 8 1997 dev

Unix style:
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ftp ftp 149605 Dec 18 1997 apithing.zip

Unix style:
drwxr-xr-x 2 1 512 Dec 22 14:15 msgs

Microsoft dares to return a DOS dir listing:
03-05-98 07:35PM <DIR> Netscape

Macintosh:
dr--r--r-- folder 0 May 2 11:24 Games

OS/2 DOS style:
0 DIR 06-20-97 11:36 IBMLAN