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Win32 API. The FtpGetFileW function does not work with non-English letters.

Participant 41 Reputation points
2024-07-14T12:31:17.7766667+00:00

What should a programmer do to extract a file from the Internet using FTP that has non-English letters in its name?

Are there any Win32 API functions (maybe Socket functions) that can be used instead of FtpGetFileW?

I am interested in low-level programming, not the capabilities of C++, C# and other programming languages.

Windows API - Win32
Windows API - Win32
A core set of Windows application programming interfaces (APIs) for desktop and server applications. Previously known as Win32 API.
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  1. Jeanine Zhang-MSFT 9,431 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2024-07-15T02:31:04.8133333+00:00

    Hello,

    Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

    The FtpGetFileW function does not work with non-English letters.

    Th reason is that FTP is a rather old protocol, according to RFC 854, the NVT requires the use of (7-bit) ASCII as the character set.

    In order to support non-English characters, the FTP specifications were extended in 1999 in RFC 2640.

    If you use non-English characters without using RFC 2640 compatible software, there will be problems--problems which are entirely self-made by not obeying the specifications.

    Are there any Win32 API functions (maybe Socket functions) that can be used instead of FtpGetFileW?

    There is no better way to extract a file from an FTP server.

    Thank you.

    Jeanine

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  2. Castorix31 83,101 Reputation points
    2024-07-15T11:47:43.0066667+00:00

    FTP command works with non-English letters (I tested a script as explained at https://www.jscape.com/blog/using-windows-ftp-scripts-to-automate-file-transfers , with get instead of put, with a file name containing chinese characters)

    So it can be launched with ShellExecute for example or by using Winsock (RETR command)

    As I saw it used RtlUnicodeToUTF8N, I tested with Winsock and it worked with the same file, like

    WCHAR UnicodeStringSource[260] = L"RETR /htdocs/測試文件.txt\r\n";

    (then RtlUnicodeToUTF8N, send command, ...)

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  3. Darran Rowe 561 Reputation points
    2024-07-16T00:43:00.6866667+00:00

    The W functions will convert based upon your process' current codepage. So it is using Windows-1251 because your system is set to Windows-1251.

    The two options that you have are:

    1. Set Windows to UTF-8
    2. Manifest your application to use UTF-8

    Use UTF-8 code pages in Windows Apps goes into this and it requires Windows 10 1903 or newer.