FTP/FTPS - Prefer MLSD over LIST for directory listings

Current Situation

• For FTP/FTPS directory listings:
  • The YADE currently uses LIST to retrieve directory contents.
    • LIST returns a human-readable directory listing whose format depends on the FTP server and its operating system.
    • For example, one server may return:

      -rw-r--r-- 1 user group 12345 Sep 24 10:30 example.txt

    • Another server may return:

      09-24-26 10:30AM 12345 example.txt

• Consequences
  • Apache Commons Net parses the LIST response and converts the server-specific output into FTPFile objects.
  • Apache Commons Net supports many common LIST formats, but LIST itself is not standardized.
  • The parser can therefore fail or produce incorrect file information when the server uses an unsupported or unexpected format.
  • Potential differences include:
    • Date and time formats.
    • Localized month names.
    • Server operating system and FTP server implementation.
    • Server-specific formatting.
  • In particular, timestamps from LIST may represent the server's local time without an explicit timezone, which can lead to ambiguous or incorrect timestamps.

Desired Behaviour

• Prefer MLSD for directory listings.
  • MLSD provides standardized, machine-readable directory information instead of a server-specific human-readable format.
    • For example:

      type=file;size=12345;modify=20260924103000; example.txt
      type=dir;modify=20260924091500; subdirectory

      • Information such as type, size and modify is provided as standardized facts.
      • The modify timestamp uses a standardized UTC-based representation, avoiding the timezone ambiguity that can occur with LIST.
• Fall back to LIST if MLSD is not supported by the server.

Test Instructions

• Use the standard YADE FTP/FTPS test suite, which performs FileSpec selection from a directory (Recursive=true|false).
• Set the YADE Job log level to DEBUG
• Expected result:
  • File specification selection and directory listing work successfully without any issues related to this change.
  • The job log at DEBUG level should shows that the MLSD command is executed.