OC-Minitel/FRequest/FRequest-protocol.md

FRequest - Simple file transfer protocol - Revision 1

FRequest is a simple file transfer protocol for use on Minitel or similar networks.

Requests

A client request consists of the following:

• A single-character request type
• The path for the file the client is requesting
• A newline

Request types can be the following characters:

• t - transfer - request file contents
• s - stat - request file size and type (format: (d or f)<size>)

Server responses

The server should respond with:

• A single character status code
• The result of the request

Status codes can be the following characters:

• y - yes - file found, read and sent
• d - directory - directory listing sent
• n - not found - no such file or directory
• f - failure - other type of failure, reason sent

Example exchange

1. The client initiates a connection to the server on the FRequest port (default 70)
2. The client sends t to ask for a transfer, the path example.txt, and a newline.
3. The server finds the file and responds with y followed by the file contents.
4. The server closes the connection when the transfer is completed.

Servers may wish to implement restricting users to a specific directory.