in reply to Retrieve SNP information from UCSC genome browser

FTP is for transfering files, it has no ability to compare them. Just download the file, uncompress it and compare it to what you have locally.

Update: Perhaps they have some API you could use, I'm not clear on exactly what your goal is. http://www.bioperl.org/wiki/UCSC_tools, Tutorials -> Perl and Bioinformatics, BioPerl.

  • Comment on Re: Retrieve SNP information from UCSC genome browser

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Re^2: Retrieve SNP information from UCSC genome browser
by taint (Chaplain) on Jan 10, 2014 at 15:27 UTC
    "FTP is for transfering files, it has no ability to compare them."

    Correction; 

    ftp perlmonks.com
Connected to perlmonks.com.
220 perlmonks.com FTP Server (Version ...) ready.
Name (perlmonks.com:joebloe):root
331 Password required for root.
Passoword:
230 User root logged in.
ftp> siz
(remote-file)
Usage: siz remote-file
^D
221 Goodbye.

    [download]

    "but I am not sure how to compare a local file to a file in the remote server without downloading."

    Please see above -- the ftp command is: siz
    which you can "compare" to, as you requested. However, if you wish to compare file contents. It is possible, but is more elaborate, and depends on the ftp servers capabilities.

    --Chris

    ¡λɐp ʇɑəɹ⅁ ɐ əʌɐɥ puɐ ʻꜱdləɥ ꜱᴉɥʇ ədoH

[reply]
[d/l]

      The documentation you link to provides no usage or in fact mention of a command called siz. If this simply compares the size of files your assertion that this is a file comparison tool is wrong.

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