IETF RFC 2640 PDF

The File Transfer Protocol, as defined in RFC 959 [RFC959] and RFC 1123 Section 4 [RFC1123], is one of the oldest and widely used protocols on the Internet. The protocol's primary character set, 7 bit ASCII, has served the protocol well through the early growth years of the Internet. However, as the Internet becomes more global, there is a need to support character sets beyond 7 bit ASCII.

This document addresses the internationalization (I18n) of FTP, which includes supporting the multiple character sets and languages found throughout the Internet community. This is achieved by extending the FTP specification and giving recommendations for proper internationalization support.