You must use the appropriate transmission attributes to preserve the content and structure of the data when you transfer data sets or files between two hosts. Use the FTP MODE subcommand to specify how the bits of data are to be transmitted, and the FTP TYPE subcommand to define the way that data is represented during the data transfer.

See MOde subcommand—Set the data transfer mode for information about the MODE subcommand, and TYpe subcommand—Set the data transfer type for information about the TYPE subcommand.

TCP/IP 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.

Table 1 shows how to set the transmission attributes for different host systems. IBM® mainframe operating systems (VM or MVS) are identified as EBCDIC transfer types. Systems with ASCII storage are identified as ASCII transfer types. A text file of an ASCII transfer type contains standard, displayable characters; a carriage return (ASCII X'0D' and EBCDIC X'15'); and line feed characters (ASCII X'0A' and EBCDIC X'25'). A text file of an EBCDIC transfer type contains standard, displayable characters only. A binary file can contain any characters.