RBrowser File Operations

Other Topics

File Operations Within a Host

RBrowser supports the following operations on the remote host:

Move
Drag the source above the destination folder. If the target opens up, drop it in. The cursor is a small black square during the drop (the default). No modifier keys are needed.

Copy
Same as above, but hold down the <ALT> key before dropping. The cursor chages to a small black +.

Create Symbolic Link
Same as above, but hold down the <CONTROL> key before dropping. The cursor chages to a small black arrow. This feature is not available on FTP. Alternatively, you can select the menu item "Create Symbolic Link." It will create a symbolic link to the selected item in the same folder with the name linkto_xxx where xxx is the name of the target file. This link refers to its target with a full path, so it can be moved anywhere.

Delete
Select file(s) in the browser and click on the File/Delete. You will be asked to confirm before the delete operation is started. In the Local Viewer you also have a choice to Move To Trash instead of deleting.

Duplicate
Select file(s) in the browser and click on the File/Duplicate. Another file with the name CopyOfOrigFileName will appear in the same folder.

Archive/Compress - Uncompress/Unarchive
The scope of this command has been greatly extended. This command works equally on an SSH/UNIX connection or on the local filesystem. This feature is not available on FTP connections. If 'Archive/Compress' is selected, RBrowser will tar and gzip the file(s) to produce a xx.tar.gz file. RBrowser will use gnutar whenever it is available. When 'Uncompress/Unarchive' is selected, RBrowser will uncompress/unarchive to following types:
.tar
.tar.Z
.tar.gz
.gz
.Z
.tgz
.zip
Be warned: RBrowser uses 'unzip -oq filename' to unzip, which means the zipfile is extracted quietly and it will overwrite any existing files!! it also deletes the zip file after extracting its contents. It is set up for maximum convenience. unzip has many flags; if you want to use it a different way, you must use a shell. The same rule applies to all other archived formats: existing files will be overwritten. There is a new default setting under RBrowser/Preferences/Misc: 'Delete originals after archive/unarchive'. If this setting is on, the file being archived will be deleted after archiving, and the tarfile will be deleted after unarchiving. The default for this preference is no. The exception to this is gzip, which changes the file's name when it compresses/uncompresses.

7: New Folder
Creates a new folder in the currently selected folder.

8: New Empty File
Creates a new empty file in the currently selected folder.

9: Set Owner
If you are logged on as root (remote or local) you can set the owner of a file. There are two ways to do this: in the Inspector Panel under the General Tab, or in the File Viewer if it is in List Mode. This operation is not available through FTP.

10: Set Group
If you own the file, you can set its group. There are two ways to do this: in the Inspector Panel under the General Tab, or in the File Viewer if it is in List Mode. Non-root users can only choose groups they belong to. This operation is not available through FTP.

All file operations work on files, folders and multiple selections. Copying/Moving a folder involves all of its subfolders.

All file operations run asynchronously in the background. You can view/kill them from the Processes panel (COMMAND-SHIFT-P or click on the chasing arrows in the File Viewer). If the KILL button appears, the operation can be aborted.

On the Local File Viewer, the default operation for dragging over a different volume is copy.

SSH/UNIX only:

Warning: The longer operations (like recursive deletes) may continue in the background on the remote host even if you try to kill them in the process panel. This behavior entirely depends on the host you are connected to. Exercise caution before starting operations (such as deleting a tree of files) which are potentially final and cannot be recovered from. In these cases you may have to telnet (or ssh) to the remote host and kill the processes directly.

File Transfers Between Different Hosts

File Transfers in RBrowser work just like in the Finder, or other FTP/SFTP clients. Simply select the files you want to move either in the Finder or in RBrowser and drop them in the target location. You can drag and drop freely between RBrowser and the Finder.

Modifier keys make no difference here. The operation is always a copy.

Local To Remote:

Remote to Local:
Drag the source file from two possible sources into a remote File Viewer: RBrowser Local Viewer or the MacOSX Finder. Drop the icon into any folder on the remote File Viewer that will open as you drag over it. Conversely, from a remote RBrowser Viewer you can drag and drop into either RBrowser's Local Viewer or the MacOSX Finder.

Remote to Remote:
You can drop into any folder on a remote browser that will open for the dragged document. Please note that the source and destination must use the same protocol (like FTP or UNIX).

File Transfer Notes: Under the ssh protocol RBrowser uses scp for file transfers. scp should reside in the same directory as the ssh client (usually in /usr/local/bin). RBrowser does its best to find it, if it cannot be found, you will see a panel asking for the full path of scp. The most important new feature: if you have two remote ssh connections, you can transfer files from one to the other DIRECTLY by simply dragging and dropping as usual! FTP File Transfer Restart (provided that the remote FTP server supports it). Here is how to restart a transfer: Drag the file over the target folder just like before. *Just before you drop* it, press the Control key. The cursor should change to the link icon. Drop the file. RBrowser will look at the file in the destination folder, and append the missing portion to the end of the file. Since it is a restart, a partial version of the same file with the same name exists in the destination folder already. If not, RBrowser will revert to a regular file transfer. CAVEATS: This is not a safe operation to do, especially during upload. Some FTP servers have bugs in determining the exact filesizes, and that could introduce extra null bytes in your file. Generally speaking it is a lot better to just repeat the transfer from scratch.