IBM Mainframe Forum

Can anyone help me to ftp a ps from mainframe to desktop...

Your post is not at all clear. Do you want to use WS-FTP or FTP command line on your desktop to pull a file from the mainframe to the PC? If so -- open the mainframe, then use the GET command (or drag and drop) to get the file.

If you wan to run a batch job on the mainframe to FTP a file to your desktop -- this cannot be done, as the FTP connection requires a server at the other end and it is extremely rare to find a desktop that has the server software running to allow this to be don. Most sites forbid it due to DHCP and other issues.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a standard internet protocol for exchanging data between two systems. It is a client-server application, so there has to be an active client and an active server in order for FTP to work.

These are a few questions you need to answer for yourself:

- Is this even allowed where you work? (most places don't like to allow the possibility for employees to steal proprietary data).
- Do you, or does your job, have the authority to run the FTP program?
- Do you have the proper network connectivity between the two systems?
- If the mainframe is initiating the FTP from a job, then it is acting as the client. So it will need to connect to an active FTP server. Do you have an FTP server installed, configured, and running on that desktop system?
- All FTP does is move the data. It will deal with the EBCDIC-to-ASCII conversion if you tell it to. Any other issues dealing with the data content and format have to be dealt with by you outside of FTP by some other means.

With most modern 3270 terminal emulators that run on PCs (Rumba, IBM Personal Comms for example), once you have logged onto TSO you can download a mainframe dataset to the PC (or upload the other way). There will be options to convert ASCII to EBCDIIC, convert end-of-record markers to CR/LF etc.

Is this what you mean?

noggin wrote:With most modern 3270 terminal emulators that run on PCs (Rumba, IBM Personal Comms for example), once you have logged onto TSO you can download a mainframe dataset to the PC (or upload the other way). There will be options to convert ASCII to EBCDIIC, convert end-of-record markers to CR/LF etc.

Is this what you mean?

Just my humble opinion. The 3270 file transfer works OK, but it is usually much slower than FTP. For small data sets it's probably quicker than FTP.