Forum OpenACS Q&A: Nice SSH SCP for Mac?

Posted by MaineBob OConnor on 11/30/01 05:54 PM

I started that long thread about Help! no SSH Telnet Access and as a result of crhackers gaining access to our server, we disabled FTP so I got a *great* new Client program WinSCP from http://winscp.vse.cz/eng/ . "WinSCP is freeware SCP (Secure CoPy) client for Windows 95/98/2000/NT using SSH (Secure SHell)."

I like this program BETTER than my old FTP client and it seems like connections and small transfers are faster. I've grown fond of the mc or Norton Commander style and WinSCP has it.

My Question: We have a MAC user that needs Copy access and I got her set up with Nifty Telnet which now has SCP support http://www .lysator.liu.se/~jonasw/freeware/niftyssh/, but the SCP interface is pretty weak, requiring typing of the copy to and copy from directory paths and file names.

IS there a nice graphical program like WinSCP or any old FTP program that I can recommend to her for SCP access with a MACintosh?

Thank you.
-Bob

2: Response to Nice SSH SCP for Mac? (response to 1)

Posted by Walter McGinnis on 11/30/01 06:10 PM

I like niftytelnet generally (for ssh) and don't really mind that I
have to type pathnames into the scp interface. Probably
because that is what you have to do in unix command line scp,
too.

Now that I use Mac OS X almost exclusively, I just ssh/scp from
the terminal app.

Anyway, the author of MacSSH (a ssh 2 client for Mac OS 8/9)
has a shareware thing called MacSFTP that I haven't tried, but it
might suit your needs. The direct link for download is here:

http://openacs.org/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=
0003Nu&topic_id=11&topic=OpenACS

Also check http://versiontracker.com when you need Mac
software. I came up with http://versiontracker.com/
moreinfo.fcgi?id=12468&db=mac as another option.

Enjoy,

3: Response to Nice SSH SCP for Mac? (response to 1)

Posted by Rich Graves on 11/30/01 06:12 PM

We have been talking about this at
http://my.brandeis.edu/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0000BD

MacOS X comes with openssh. No GUI, but you might try a wrapper script around rsync. One script to rsync the production site to her Mac, another to rsync it the other way.

There is now an early alpha sftp GUI at http://www.macssh.com/

MindTerm 2.x has a very impressive ftp-to-sftp proxy in Java. You open a tunnel and point any old FTP client at localhost. Unfortunately the Java implementations for MacOS are pretty weak, but try your luck with http://www.mindbright.se/mindterm/

4: Response to Nice SSH SCP for Mac? (response to 1)

Posted by S. Y. on 11/30/01 06:31 PM

According to www.freessh.org, there is a Mac payware client from F-Secure that probably is GUI-ed (I can't imagine a Mac user paying for a client without a GUI).

I've used the Windows payware version of SSH Secure Shell from SSH Communications (www.ssh.com) which has a GUI for the sftp client.

5: Response to Nice SSH SCP for Mac? (response to 1)

Posted by Jamie Ross on 11/30/01 10:47 PM

I have used MacSSH for SSH access , though I have just made the jump to MacOS 10.1 so use the command line ssh as much. For FTP access , check out Interarchy (www.interarchy.com) which is really nice. I use the Alpha text editor for OpenACS coding which backends nicely to Interarchy for remote access. If you are using OSX, Interarchy will use SSH so secure passwords etc.

OSX is turning out to be very nice.. I have it on a Powerbook G4 with 256MB Ram and it is a dream.. and accessing y OpenACS stuff on Llinux servers works smoothly (btw.. I recommend Suse7.3 Pro which even comes with AOLserver )

cheers
Jamie

6: Response to Nice SSH SCP for Mac? (response to 1)

Posted by Joel Natividad on 11/30/01 10:52 PM

Expanding on Rich's suggestion on scripting on OS X, rsynching is a great idea! Imagine, the user just drags files to the folder using the Finder.

Can't get any easier than that and it seamlessly dovetails into the Aqua GUI.

Don't forget, TCL/TK is available for OS X as well (Fink is an easy way to download it too), so you can build some prompting scripts too.

Alternatively, OS X 10.1 now has AppleScript support, so if you want to do "lickable" Aqua dialog box thingys and stuff, you can go this route as well.

Of course, you can always do shell scripts.

BTW, I hate to go off on a tangent her, but is it just me, or has anyone also noticed a lot of *Nix folks walking around with *iBooks with OS X? I have two Macs at home and working with OS X is just a dream!

And with Office V.X, the free Developer Tools, GNU-Darwin and the Aqua interface - it seems to be the "perfect" developer platform.