MacSFTP QuickStart: Note that SFTP is NOT FTP over a secure connection. Even though, from a user perspective, they behave the same, these two protocols are completely different. The host you want to reach must be running an SSH server with a properly configured sftp-server, and can safely shut down the insecure FTP access. One of the big advantages of SFTP over FTP, beside security, is the single TCP channel connection and multiplexing, that allows connections behind firewalls without requiring complex router configurations. Connection to an sftp server: Cmd-N (or File menu->New Connection item) brings an SFTP Login dialog where you can enter the host name, your user name and password, and optionally the pathname on the host. The bottom left popup button let you select the connection settings from the bookmarks list, or add the current settings into a new bookmark. The top right popup recalls the settings for the previous connections since the application's launch. You can extend the SFTP Login dialog to chose more options by clicking on the little arrow at the bottom of the dialog: Ą Protocol: Automatic: MacSFTP will use the right protocol depending on the server's greetings message. SSH1: SSH protocol version 1 will be forced SSH2: SSH protocol version 2 will be forced Ą Compression: none: no compression enabled. zlib: use zlib if available. Ą Single session transfers: if your server uses the Secur-ID authentication which requires a new password for each new connection, you can check this option to use only the main sftp session for all the transfers. Ą Load users and groups: check this option if you want to access the /etc/passwd and /etc/groups to get accurate files permissions displayed. Ą Translate file names: Use this option to convert the file names depending on the server's type/localization. European Linux servers generally use ISO-8859-1 MacOSX's built-in OpenSSH sftp-server uses UTF-8 (Unicode) Ą Translate TEXT files content: Check this option if you need a character translation for the TEXT files exchanged. The same translation as the filenames will be used. Ą Translate file content in 'View File' Check this option if you need a character translation when viewing remote TEXT files. The same translation as the filenames will be used. Uploading: There are several ways to send files or directories to the remote: - Drag files from the finder and drop them either in the browser window, to send the file in the currently listed directory, or over a directory's icon or name to put the file inside this hilited directory. - Select the option 'Put Files' in the 'Remote' menu. - Use the AppleScript command 'upload'. Downloading: Receiving files or directories is done the same way: - Drag them from the browser window and drop them on the desktop, or any finder icon. - Select a group of files in the browser window, and use the 'Get Files' option from the 'Remote' menu. - Use the AppleScript command 'download'. Preferences: General: Ą Open login dialog at startup: Check this box if you want MacSFTP to bring the 'New Connection' dialog at startup. Ą Open bookmarks window at startup: Check this box if you want MacSFTP to always open the Bookmarks list at startup. Ą New window when opening folders: Check this box if you want to have a new window for each opened directory. Ą Edit multiple files permissions at once: Check this option to set the permissions of a selected set of files with a single dialog. Ą Double-click on a file: Select the type of action when a file is double-clicked in the browser: - Download the selection: will open the destination directory selection dialog and download the selection at this location - Edit the selection with BBEdit: will download the selection in the temporaty items directory, launch BBEdit, open each downloaded document in BBEdit, and bring it to the front. You can then edit your documents as usually. Once the edition completed, simply save your document in BBEdit, and the modified file will be uploaded in place of the original on the server. Ą When a file already exists: Select what to do when sending or receiving already existing items: - Ask the user what to do: will present a dialog asking to user to either update or replace the items. - Update: will send only the items whose size or modification time is different. - Replace: will replace everything. Ą Keep connections alive: Some routers close TCP conections after a period of inactivity, this option will prevent these disconnections by sending periodical messages to the server. Ą Remember passwords: Check this box if you want MacSFTP to store internally your passwords to avoid typing them again when reconnecting to the same host. Ą Use MacOS keychain: Check this box if you want MacSFTP to save your passwords in MacOS keychain. Ą Compute One-Time-Passwords: Check this option if you want MacSFTP to auto-reply to OTP requests, also known as s/key. Ą Default download folder: This is the destination directory for downloads when the destination file is not set using the AppleScript download command. This is also the default selection when downloading manually. SSH: Ą Protocol: Automatic: MacSFTP will use the right protocol depending on the server's greetings message. SSH1: SSH protocol version 1 will be forced SSH2: SSH protocol version 2 will be forced Note: This is the default option set for the new connection dialog, it can be bypassed by extending this dialog. Ą SSH Log level: If you have problems connecting to a host, set this option to get traces of the SSH negociation in the log window. Ą SFTP Log level: If you have problems transferring items, set this option to get traces of the SFTP protocol in the log window. Ą SSH1: Ą Encryption: Select the encryption type to use. default will use the first common encryption that matches both the server and the client's list. Ą RSA1 key: This is the key pair used in public-key authentication. Some SSH servers are configured to reject password authentication, and let users connect only using this method. 'NewÉ' lets you generate this key-pair 'OtherÉ' lets you select an existing MacSFTP key pair 'ExportÉ' creates a text file containing the public key to install on the server side. Ą SSH2: Ą Encryption: Select the encryption type to use. default will use the first common encryption that matches both the server and the client's list. Ą Authentication: Select the authentication type to use. default will use the first common authentication that matches both the server and the client's list. Ą RSA/DSA keys: This is the key pair used in public-key authentication. Some SSH servers are configured to reject password authentication, and let users connect only using this method. you can use either type of keys with SSH2. 'NewÉ' lets you generate this key-pair 'OtherÉ' lets you select an existing MacSFTP key pair 'ExportÉ' creates a text file containing the public key to install on the server side. File-Transfer: Ą Upload permissions: Set here the file and directories access permissions when created on the server. Ą Keep permissions of existing files; Check this box if you want MacSFTP to keep the existing remote files permissions as-is when uploading. Ą Ignore set permissions errors: Some servers are configured to reject 'change permissions' commands, and force them to a fixed set. Check this box if you have "couldn't fsetstat" error messages when uploading. Ą Keep file permissions on MacOSX Check this box if you want MacSFTP to keep file permissions of the files according to MacOSX permissions. note that this inhibits the default upload permissions sets. Ą Change permissions on create directory: Some servers ignore the permissions sent along with the mkdir command. Check this box if you want MacSFTP to change the directory permissions after its creation. Ą Block size: This is the maximum number of bytes in each block sent/received from the server. Ą Window size: This is the maximum number of blocks sent/received before waiting for an acknowledge. Ą Upload files using MacBinary: Check this option if you want to preserve the resource fork/finder informations by converting the files into MacBinary III format on the fly. note that a '.bin' extension will be added to the filename. Ą only when needed: Check this option if you don't want the MacBinary encoding for 'TEXT' files, and for files containing an empty resource fork. Ą Translate text files linefeeds: Check this option if you want Macintosh CRs to be converted into unix LFs for 'TEXT' files for upload, and vice-versa when downloading files whose extension returns the file type 'TEXT' using your system's Internet Settings. Ą Skip 'dot' files for directory download: Check this option if you don't want to transfer files beginning with a dot when downloading directories. Ą Skip Hidden files for directory upload: Check this option if you don't want to transfer hidden files and files beginning with a dot when uploading directories. Ą Preserve symlinks and aliases: Check this option if you want to maintain the symlinks when transferring directories, otherwise, originals will always be transfered. Ą Delete existing files before uploading: Check this option to work-around a problem in some sftp-servers if a file upload fails when the remote file already exists. Display: Ą Hide 'dot' files: Check this box if you want MacSFTP to hide the files whose name begins with a dot. Ą Compute directory sizes: Check this box if you want MacSFTP to display the size of the directories. This is a slow operation, but it displays the sizes in the listings in the background. Ą Directory cache size: this is the maximum buffer size for cached directory listings. You can set it to 0 if you don't want MacSFTP to cache directory data (slower, but always accurate). Ą Symlinks resolution: 'Determine from server' will send a symbolic link resolution request for each symbolic link found in the directory listing. this can take some time on large directories containing a lot of links, but should always give the right results. 'Treat as Directories' will assume all the symbolic links are directories without asking. 'Treat as Files' will assume all the symbolic links are files. Ą File Mappings: Lets you edit the InternetConfig file mappings to link filenames with MacOS type/creator. - © 2002-2003 Jean-Pierre Stierlin.