How to transfer data with FTP

FTP supports only the data transfer of a data set or file structured as a continuous sequence of data bytes. This ensures that the correct record format is preserved across MVS™ hosts. Information could be lost or altered during transmission if you use an incorrect transfer.

Table 1 shows how to set the transmission attributes for different host systems. For example, VM or MVS host systems use EBCDIC for internal character representation. A text file of ASCII data type contains displayable characters; a carriage return (X'0D') and line feed (X'0A') are used to delimit a line. A text file of EBCDIC data type contains displayable characters; the new-line character (X'15') is used to delimit a line. A binary file contains a contiguous stream of bits with no line delimiters.

Table 1. Recommended methods for data transfer
Transfer between host types	Data transfer type	Data transfer mode
EBCDIC and EBCDIC — DBCS text data	IBMKANJI (EBCDIC)	Stream
EBCDIC and EBCDIC — text data	EBCDIC	Stream
EBCDIC and EBCDIC — DBCS binary data	IBMKANJI (EBCDIC)	Block
EBCDIC and EBCDIC — binary data	EBCDIC	Block
EBCDIC and ASCII — DBCS text data	SJISKANJI, EUCKANJI, JIS78KJ, JIS83KJ, HANGEUL, KSC5601, TCHINESE, BIG5, SCHINESE (ASCII)	Stream
ASCII and EBCDIC — MBCS data	ASCII	Stream
ASCII and EBCDIC — text data	ASCII	Stream
ASCII and EBCDIC — DBCS binary data	Image (binary)	Stream
ASCII and EBCDIC — binary data	Image (binary)	Stream
ASCII-to-EBCDIC-to-ASCII — all data Note: The EBCDIC host is used for storage only. Data remains encoded in ASCII; therefore, the data cannot be used on the EBCDIC host.	Image (binary)	Stream

For more information about the DBCS data type keywords and examples, see FTP with traditional DBCS support.

For information about setting data transfer type, see TYpe subcommand—Set the data transfer type. For information about setting data transfer mode, see MOde subcommand—Set the data transfer mode.